Mass Effect The Final Frontier
by mrwendel
Summary: Under the captainship of Ashley Williams the crew of the MSV Earth, the first ship of its kind on a five year mission to explore the universe beyond the Master relay. Follow the crew of the Earth, as they discover new planets and species while solving a mystery that once held the universe in its grasp. Set 38 years after ME3
1. Chapter 1

_Before we begin,_

I just want to point out that while some characters from Mass Effect (Of which I do not own) like Ashley, Grunt, Liara, Mshep himself along with Miranda and possibly some Tali action as well, the roles they play do not take center stage it's more about the OCs in the story.

So, if you looking for a space odessey set in the Mass Effect universe where a huge ass space ship Captained by the Famous Ashley Williams where she and a crew of the best soldiers, scientists, engineers, piolts, along with some crazy ass super powered beings of my own creation that take on aspects of the universe, not to mention new planets, new alien species, new technology progressed from the Mass Effect universe which makes for one hell of'a ride, ladies and gentlemen I give you...

_Mass Effect: The Final Frontier_

**Year, 2220**

**Havana, Cuba**

**6:00 p.m.**

**A.C.I.A (Alliance Central Inteligence Agency) HQ**

Jacob Ryan a ACIA veteran and

operations director sat in his nice office enjoying a cuban cigar. He wore a classical black suit (Modern by our standers) his tie was poorly tied around his neck, and he had five o'clock shadow at six. His hair was also on the long-side, pulled back out of his stone-like face. He was looking over dossiers for the deep space operation the Alliance was spear-heading.

Project New Horizons, the council was going to send five ships through the master relay to explore dark space, the ships were near completion however they needed crews. That's where Ryan came in he was recruting for the MSV Earth. The human ship, the others were given to the specices with the largest fleets, so the asari, salarians, turians and quarians were given permission to begin costruction on the new "explorer class" ships, they are bigger than frigates yet smaller than dreadnaghts (nick-named "drigates" by the engineers and crew).

He was facing a few delemas, one of them was his once top agent is now a fugitive from the Alliance and is working as a mercenary with some very expensive (and very missed) military assets. Liam Darcey, unsung hero of Las Vegas and the Alliance, he stopped an attack from a terrorist group that called themselves Cerberus. They of course had no ties to the original group but they did use the same symbols and same ideology of the once successful and feared organization.

Darcey was hunting them down, base by base, officer by officer. But he wasen't alone (we'll get to that later). Bottom line is, he is one of Ryans most trusted friends and top canidate for first officer. Today he was going before the review board in hopes of granting Liam imunity from his previous crimes. Which if he had apprehended the leader of cerberus; Richard Brenks, he would have been able to clear his name. But until he does so he and his friends are stuck in the terminous systems.

Ryan was looking over thousands of applications, he came accross a genetisit and lab technition turned engineer, Nora Shepard he chuckled to himself at the thought.

"Of course." He said aloud. Shaking his head as he accepted the application without much hesitation.

Nora Shepard was the adoptive daughter of John And Miranda Shepard. She worked on the some-what failed project Alpha, the super soliders that were created by the Alliance, but they couldn't deal with the prothean ways of thinking that was genetically altered in their brains. Most went insane but only two known Alphas are mentally stable, Major John Muccurio and Sargent Allyson Parish (Declared AWOL). John was currently serving on the SR2 under captian Summers, (Ashley Williams captained the normandy for three years before giving up the mantle).

The hard part about recruiting for the Earth was that a muti-species crew was a requirement not a request. Same for the other ships, if they came into contact with alien life the council wanted all races represented even the Krogan and batarians, which made it hard to recruit for a deep space mission with their short tempers the Krogan and Batarian governments had to hand pick applicants based on temperment as well as skill. Which gave him little wiggle room for selection, he had to take what he was given.

He heard his office door slid open followed by the clack of high heels. His boss Chief of operations Sandra White walked in face down in a data pad. Her pale skin contrasted against her dark hair and blue eyes.

"Chief." Ryan said exhailing the smooth cuban tobacco.

"Ryan, are you seriously trying to get Darcey back, again?"

He ran his hand down his face and put his cigar out on the ash tray that sat on his desk.

"Yes I am, he's not only inocent-er more or less, but he's the only person I trust going on that ship."

"Look I get it, but their is simply no proof that he is. It's been seven years, and until you reel Brenks in he's a wanted man I'm sorry but that's it. And Humanity's the only race that dosen't have a captain or first officer yet for their ship and last I checked that was your job."

Ryan swiped at his terminal. Sandra walked over and leaned above his desk to see what he was doing.

"Do you mind?" Ryan asked raising an eyebrow.

"You know what today is?" She ask still looking at his terminal.

"Could it be someones birthday?" He said letting out a sigh.

"Hm, you actually remembered." She pushed off his desk and sat in a chair opposite of his desk.

"I did, and if you let me work I might also remeber the dinner reservations." He looked over to Sandra and smiled.

"Well if you did your work I wouldn't be here." She reminded him.

He turned his terminal toward her and showed her the three people he had in mind for captin.

"Admiral Ashley williams, Captain Howard Riley and Admiral Greg Johnson."

Sandra tapped on her data pad and brought up Williams' file. "A female captian would look good to humanity and a war hero no less."

"Seriously Sandy? We're bringing politics into a important descion?" Ryan reclined in his chair.

She glared at him then looked back down at her data pad.

"Jacob I know you wont like my answer but, no one knows Riley, Johnson is too old and Williams is still Sixty-two."

Ryan gave Williams' dossier a good once over again and then looked over to Sandra.

"Well, she's efficiant in combat or was, she lead missions before, during and after the reaper war however she's a solider not a shepard, so how do we know she's ready for the second most important expidition in human, or should I say _galactic_ history?"

"Oh please, Ashley Williams was first officer of the Normandy and she Captained it for years before she was promoted. And the whole Shepard thing is useless, we're never going to find another Shepard and thinking you are is simply impractical."

Ryan made a few key strokes and stood up. "I hope you're right, now I just have to speak with the board of directors which, might I add you are on, then we can go eat."

Sandra stood up and walked over to him.

"Jacob..." She didn't want to disapoint him but Liams situation relied heavily on apprehending Richard Brenks and at this point the Alliance had no leads. And quite frankly they didn't care he was fringe threat who attacked a relatively large city seven years ago, needless to say he was no public enemy number one.

"Don't get your hopes up and even if they let him off the hook, for some miraculous reason, where would you find him?"

"It's not about letting him off scott-free it's about putting someone I know and trust on humanities flagship. And I think you of all people understand how important trust is, being a leading figure in a inteligence agency and all."

He sat up from his desk and left the room with Sandra. Ryan didn't know how he was going to convince the board of directors but he figured if he made serving on a starship more of a punishment than a reward then maybe, just maybe he could get them back. They were profetionals after all...

Music has a way of making things better, like sweeping the dinning room/kitchen for instance. Devin Baker former Biotic protogy and former _human being_ was stuck sweeping but, that didn't mean he couldn't have a little fun. The opening guitar rift to "Lonely is the night" by Elton john rang out in the kitchen as he swept and sang along.

"Lonely is the night, yeah, when you find yourself alone, mmm, your demons come to light, and your mind is not your own! Ooh baby."

He air guitared the broom as he hopped over to the dinning section of the room. He swept the dirt and grime into a small pile then swept it into a dust pan and tossed it out.

"If I had time to fight, when the walls're close'n in, huh! Call it what you like, it's time you got to win."

"Lonely, lonely, lonely!" He let the song play as he air guitared.

Devin biotically lifted the chairs and stacked them neatly ontop of the table and swept under it.

"Their's danger after night, the man is on the prowel, grr, get the dynomite, pow! The boys are set to prowel. Lonely is the night! When you here the voices call, are you ready for a fight? Do you wanna take it all, Yeah!"

"What are doing?"

Devin froze as (Former) Sargent Allyson Parish stood in the dinning room door way, arms crossed. She was captured by cerberus seven years ago and expiramented on due to her being one of the only Alphas to not go insane. She had permanent nero clamps on her head leaving two silvery metal strips on the right side of her skull that was shaved. She kept her dark brown hair in a pony tail that didn't go farther than her sholder blades.

"I'm, uh...cleaning?" He waved his hand and the music turnned off.

She narrowed her eyes at him, then heaved laughter.

"Just to be clear, how much _did_ you see?" He asked as he set the broom against the wall.

"Enough to know that you're not as punk rock as you used to be."

She said walking over to the fridge as she wiped a tear. Because of the Alpha serum Allyson stood at six foot four inches and had quite the impressive muscular amizonian build. She was very noticable among other humans but to most aliens she was just another human. Allyson pulled out a sports drink that she found on their last trip to the outer rim and uncapped it.

"Come on I wasen't that emo."

He said putting the chairs back on the floor, minus the use of biotics. Devin is mainly made out of dark energy and since biotics is the control and manifestation of dark energy, he can use them extremely well. Now why he is, is still a mystery to most but he appears human and that's enough for the others.

"Devin you had faded black nail polish when I found you at eightteen." She waved her pointer finger at him as she pulled out a chair and sat down.

"That was seven years ago, _and_ you also had a full head of hair." He shot back as he sat down across from her.

"_And_ now you've spent to much time around Liam and have learned the fine art of jackass." She took a drink and set it down. She really hoped the flavor was lemon lime and not some weird alien fruit that could give her space rabbies, some weird disease or allergic reaction.

"Tis' a fine art indeed." He pointed out.

They sat in silence for a moment until Devin spoke.

"Speaking of Liam where do you think he has us headed this time?"

"Oh, I don't know some place far away from council space most likely, we'll find out when we reach him anyway." Allyson set her drink on the table and shrugged.

"Yeah well council space has all the good work." He pointed out.

"Well if the Alliance got even a whiff of us we'd be shot on sight." Allyson wished it weren't so but she knew what the Alliance did to traitors and it wasen't an ice cream party, they'd be imprisoned for life if they were lucky. And unlucky? Well, she didn't like to think about unluckly.

"I know but...we've been living off gritts and stale military rations for the past week, Mara's getting moody as all hell and Felix just does his drell thing."

He pinched the bridge of his nose thinking about how little food they had left.

"What about Jason?" She asked.

"He's Jason, probably meditating and living off universe juice."

Nova, now known as Jason was a prisoner of cerberus for eightteen years after the Master relay anomoly occured which is he and Devins origin. However they have no real clue as to what they are. Jason is just energy, not dark energy so his biotic abilities are a little different than the typical biotics. He can heal people quickly as well as himself, instead of consentrated blasts he's able to shoot beams of energy at his enemys, he can also fly (like Devin) if he consetrates enough. And that's just the tip of the ice burg for Jason, he has a multitude of abilities at his disposal.

"What does the universe taste like, you think it's expesive?" She asked.

"Eh, probubly like chicken...and I think you just find it." Devin he rubbed his nose a little and flicked a booger.

"Didn't you just sweep the floor?" Allyson pointed down at the ground.

He shrugged and stood up and made his way out the door and down the hall that lead to the crews quaters and his room. "Too tired to care Ally, too tired to care, night."

"Good night." She stood up and put her drink back in the refrigerator and grabbed two of Liams beers and walked up to the bridge where Mara T'yra a former asari spy was sitting at the controls waitting to drop out of FTL. Her purple-ish skin shining in the light as she rested her feet up on the console.

"I got you something to take the edge off." Allyson said sitting down in the co-pilots seat.

"Thanks, aren't these Liams?"

"What's he gonna do, fire me?" Allyson joked.

Shrugging, Mara kicked the drink back and made a face. "What's in it?"

"This ones a little hoppy, but not bad." Allyson said nodding her head as she read the contents.

"It's ok I guess...gets the job done." Mara sighed as she took another swig.

She missed the days when when she would travel the galaxy and route out injustice or cause some of her own. But she got herself into this, Liam wasen't the only one wanted by his government, Mara was wanted by the asari republics for treason and theft as well as a party to murder of a councilor. The newly appointed Batarian councilor was working with Brenks, giving him wepons and training his troops. Liam shot him after they rescued Allyson and Devin as well as his brother Jason.

Mara set her drink aside to check the console, she ran her hands over the timer seeing that they'd be exiting the relay soon she hit the intercom button.

"Prepare for deacceleration." Mara said.

Allyson braced herself, while the ship had inertia dampeners they were a little old and were starting to fail. The Infamous Ostrich halted and switched to FTL speeds.

"Fuel is low." Said the ships V.I. (Since it was a turian ship the V.I.s voice was a male turian, nicknamed "Primarch")

"Shit." Mara said as she checked the fuel gauge.

"Again? Man we need a job, and soon." She said as Mara pulled up to the fuel station.

"Mara?"

Felixs' voice came over the intercom. Felix was a defector to the Alliance after he escaped the hanar homeworld Kajhe. He escaped because the world itself was the reason for keptrals syndrom, the drell were simply not made to live on the moist, wet planet. He was however a trained assassin by the hanar and was considered a valuble asset until he was involed in the killing of the batarian councilor.

"The drive core is about to give if we don't set her down soon we're going to have to push."

Mara looked over to Allyson then back at the intercom.

"You know that can be aranged." Mara thought out loud.

"Just send Devin down here to charge it and we should be able to make it to Omega." Felix sounded exausted they needed constent watch on the drive core after they got into a dog fight with a vorcha fighter squadron two weeks ago.

"Alright Allyson's gonna go get him." She tapped Allysons sholder and pointed at the exit.

"Last time I bring you a drink." She smirked and walked out of the cockpit.

"Good, this one was swill." Mara said under her breath.

"What was that?"

"Go get the kid!"

At twenty-seven Devin was not a kid anymore but they had gotten use to calling him that so the name stuck. Since Devin is basically dark energy personofide he's able to charge devices that run on eezo, maybe not as well as eezo itself but enough to haul them to Omega, Where Liam Darcey was currently "working".

"He better have a job." Mara said as they flew to Omega.

Omega, the cespit of the galaxy and capitol of the termious systems. There you could find all manors of work you just needed three requirements, a ship, a crew and a most importantly a gun.

"Look, captain Darcey All I have is a delivery job and I allready gave it to Hanhar and his crew."

"Hanhar, Hanhar!? That ass-hat couldn't deliver a crate of packing peanuts!"

Aria T'loak was allways hiring free lancing crews for miscellaneous work in the terminus systems seeing as how the citadel space freighters don't come near her. The benifit for working with Aria is If your in the terminous systems and you've got her freight. No one will touch you, even the pirates know the one rule of the terminous systems, Don't fuck with Aria or her Sheriffs. The last part was added after criminals realized how efficiant the terminus systems sheriffs were.

But it seemed like today Aria had nothing for Captain Darcey and his crew.

"What if I said please?" He set his hands on his holster for his laser pistol.

Aria shook her head in confusion. "How would that make the job avalible?"

Liam shrugged his sholders, "I don't know, seems to work with most people."

"I'm not most people." If she wasen't Aria T'loak Liam would have laughed in her face.

She sat on her couch in the V.I.P. booth at Afterlife, her metaphorical throne if you will, never mind, her literal throne. Liam was Thirty-four years old and had short dark blonde hair and blue eyes, he wore a tatered grey sweater and his old military pants that he kept for the past seven years. He had his fathers quick wit and surpassed his skill, he also had his mothers forward american attitude, if he wanted something, sure enough he'd get it. Didn't care much on the "how" just that he got what he and his crew wanted.

Hanhar was in the back of the booth drinking a green liquor and stood up.

"To slow Darcey? Maybe your age is getting to you, I don't know how humans age so for all I know you could be just a little welp." Hanhar Valik was a batarian private contractor like Liam (only batarian).

Liams comlink chirped (Broken omi-tool) he held up his left finger to Hanhar before answering.

"Yeah?"

"Did you get a job? We need a new drive core...like now." Mara said, he could here Felix and Devin in the backround.

"I'm working on it...do you think anyone will miss Hanhar?" Liam asked.

"Valik? Nah."

He ended the conversation abruptly and put his comlink back in his pocket and turned to Hanhar.

"Well old chum looks like todays your lucky day." He said giving his trade mark lopsided smile.

"Oh really?" Hanhar said as he made his way back to his table. He turnned around to face Liam.

"And why is that?"

"Early retirement." Liam was kind enough to let Hanhar reach for his pistol but Liam already hand drawn his gun and zapped him. Laser wepons didn't have many upsides when compared to bullets, but you could draw and fire a lot faster if you don't have to wait for your weapon to unfold.

"Damn it Darcey!" Aria stood up and walked over to Hanhar, she pushed him with her foot and he let out a moan.

"I didn't kill him, now it seems he sustained an injury to his lower abdoman that could take weeks to recover and it might impare him from, oh I don't know making deliveries in the terminous systems."

Aria chuckled and waved her finger at Liam as she walked back to her couch, she plopped down and looked to him.

"You're and asshole you know that?" She said sipping a drink.

"That's what they tell me." He said reloading his wepon before holstering it. Laser wepons relied on limmited amunition however they are extremly effective when taking down their target. It loaded from the side like a revolver but had more shots, the average laser pistol has ten shots per magazine.

"Yeah well, the jobs yours. But don't fuck it up, got it?"

Liam leaned down a little and smiled. "Got it." He turned around and walked out of the booth and strolled down to the bar.

"Got any human whiskey?" He asked the female turian bar-tender.

"Yeah but only one kind so you're gonna have to deal with it." She poured him a shot and put it infront of him, "Two credits."

"Comon, Nancy we've got to be best friend by now." He said putting the credits on the table.

"For the last time my name is not Nancy." She said glaring at him. "It's Aileen, I don't know how you get Nancy out of Alieen."

"Touchy, touchy. anyway, hear anything interesting?" He said downing his drink.

She glanced down at the counter then back up at Liam. Reluctantly he set four credits on the slid them into her hand and she leaned over the counter.

"It seems like the Alliance is looking for you, and not just because of the whole councilor thing."

"Why?" He asked.

She non-chalantly looked around until Liam calmly set his gun on the table.

"Why?" He waited deadpan, for a response.

She sneered and motioned for him to put the gun away.

"Comon Liam, I thought we were friends." She said sarcastically.

He rolled his eyes then set two more credits on the counter. "That's all I can give."

"They sent this special task force to get you."

"That's not news." He said and demanded his credit back.

"Wait, hold on now, they sent two N7s after you. Just two." she held up her two fingers.

"Well, that is something." He scratched his chin slightly then thanked her for the drink he walked to the docks. And there she was the Infamous Ostrich, now you've probubly been wondering about the name. Well when they escaped Earth after the battle of Las Vegas they still needed to name their vessel. And Allyson suggested names from a hat. Jason had written Infamous Ostrich, his explanation...

"What? Ostriches can be frightening in packs."

Anyway, when Liam saw it he almost smiled. It was a small turian cruiser, it could fit a crew of twenty easiliy. but they only needed room for seven, they've been trying to speard the word of recruitment but it's well known that if you fly on the Ostrich you're Alliance blacklisted for life. Not the best sales pitch but it's the only one they had, Liam watched as the bottom hatch fell to the docking bay floor, Devin and Jason walked out carrying the toasted drive core down the ramp. Jason was the exact opposite of Devin (in appearance) Devin had paler skin and dark hair. Were as Jason had a curly mop of blonde hair and a bit of a tan, he was also more muscular than the skinny-er Devin.

"Are you Captain Darcey?"

Liam turnned around and saw it was one of Arias men, a Salarian. The packages were right behind him.

"Ah, what do we got?" Liam said as he signed for them.

"Medical supplies. For..." He checked the destination label on the large crates and turnned back to Liam

"The Shrike Abyssal. The Xe Cha system on Torsal Nym."

"Sounds good as soon as we get our drive core replaced, with the advanced paymet. We can leave as soon as today." Liam said as he was handed the data pad, which also had the first half of the payment, which was enough to buy a drive core and food so the crew would be happy.

The Salarian obviously didn't care and just nodded before he left the loading docks, leaving Liam witht the cargo. He used the loading machine that the salarian left behind to load the cargo into the Ostrich. Mara was waiting for him inside, she seemed happy to see the goods more than Liam, as she watched him bring in the last crate.

"So we got the job?" She asked, arms crossed.

"We got the job." He hopped out of the loading machine and stood smiling, full of himself as usual.

"Quit being so smug." She said with a smile before she walked back into the ship towards the cockpit, he had grown used to watching her walk away from him.

Liam placed his hands on his hips in a proud stance. "And, i'm home."

As Devin and Jason hauled in the new drive core inside, Felix followed with a data pad and handed it to Liam.

"Correction, now you're home, sign for this." He waited and Liam signed his name and handed it back.

"Well, better get a move on otherwise Valiks crew will be here soon to reclaim their cargo." Felix said patting the captains sholder as he walked towards the engine room.

"Ah, healthy competition." Devin said, passing Liam as he walked up the ships ramp.

"Actually it's the exact opposite, if Valiks crew find us they will most likely attack us making it a unhealthy working enviornment and result in a pay raise." Jason chimed in with his dose of realism.

"Wrong answer, you get paid the same either way." Liam said walking up into the ship as the loading ramp closed.

"Why are you such a downer?" Devin asked.

Jason raised raised his hands in response, "Well, I didn't say they'd win."

It took them an hour to get the drive core in place before they could take off but as usual, somehow they managed. When you have people aboard who can bend steel and breathe in space you can accomplish a lot, and if it wasen't for said accomplishments Aria would have had Liam killed on sight for not cooperating with her desicion. As he walked through the ship he again realized something, he kinda liked it. Being out on the final frontire with the best crew and friends a captain could ask for, as well as a sizable terminous bank account. T.S. credits were worth a half of regular citidel space credits but the value was slowly climbing with the citidel space natural reasourses being used up.

Aside from that little snag the only downside was that they could never return home. Allyson is KIA, Liam, Mara and Felix are traitors and Devin and Jason are military property. They really had no chance on the other side, as he walked up the steps to the cockpit he slid into the copilots seat. As Mara was preparing for dust-off Liam found one of his beer bottles on the console dashboard.

"Nothing quite reminds me of home like an Octoberfest." Is what he said when he brought it on the ship. He thought that labeled it as his but apperantly their were others who thought differently.

"Hey, this is mine." He said picking it up.

"Keep it, it tasted like piss." Mara stated bluntly as the ship left the hanger.

Astounded Liam looked at the bottle then to Mara. "P-what? You don't even know things." Liam rarely took situations seriously, he tipically treated most things with little to no maturity so he had a few excentricities.

He waved his hand dismissing her claim.

"Piss." She restated.

"Well at least I don't know how to compare things to urine."

"Godess you're like dealing with a twelve year-old, and you're thirty-four. Which by my standards is still twelve."

Liam sighed and looked out the window as they left Omega and flew towards the relay.

"By the way our inertia dampeners were damaged when we put in the new drive core, so hang on." Mara said as they approached the mass relay.

"Mara wait-"

Liam was standing up as she said it and quickly grabbed onto his chair as he felt the jump to FTL.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEE-click.

Nora Shepard rolled over rubbing her eyes, she then realized that she was at her parents house and not her aperment in Chicago and rolled completely off the bed. She laid on the floor cursing herself and tried to stand up, but she comically slipped on her blanket and landed face down on the floor.

"Today...is going to be the best day ever." She tried to convince herself, face still on the floor.

She later proceeded with her morning routine, shower then followed by brushing her teeth, then she tied her long bright red hair back behind her face and let it fall to her neck then stood infront of the mirror staring at her dull green eyes and freckly face. They formed around her nose and cheeks, she had been job hunting for the last three years. not many wanted a scientist that was apart of a failed project, so she went to basic training a year back and after finishing she applied to serve on warships as scientific council seeing as how no private companies would hire her she had to suck it up an go to the Alliance.

She had applied to serve on a space-fairing vessel and was waiting for a response from the Alliance. She hoped that because of her father they'd show some kindness and with a recomendation from her aunt as well as her former university, (Kansas State University). She took a breath then nodded to herself.

"Today, it has to be today." She sighed and looked down at herself.

Physically she was conditioned well by the Alliance who had her go through basic training.

She however was rejected by every lab and R&D section of the Alliance she applied for, not the best confidence booster for the quiet girl who would rather read and experiment than go out with friends or...dare she think it? Date. She hadden't had a real date since highschool and honestly didn't care (but she totally did) with a sigh and surprising determination Nora got dressed and went downstairs.

"Good morning Nora." Said her adoptive mother.

"Mom." She gave her a quick hug and walked over to her dad who was sitting at the kitchen table reading a news feed from his omni-tool.

"Dad." She said leaning over and giving him a peck on the cheek.

"Mm-hm, that's nice dear."

"John, no omni-tools at the table." Miranda warnned.

"That's a good idea you should stick with it." He said not paying attention.

Miranda pinched the bridge of her nose as Nora poured herself a bowl of cereal(Cap'n crunch). She sat at the table and ate her breakfast, she had to be back at base in two hours, her shore leave ended that day. Her serving on a frigate almost became a passion or rather an obsession, she wanted to make her father proud. Not that he wasen't allready but her being fired from the R&D branch was a bit of a shock, she did after all harbor traitors for a full twenty-four hours.

Miranda walked over and set a glass of orange juice next to her and walked back to the kitchen and grabbed a coffee.

"Hey Miri can you grab me something too...please?" Shepard leaned back in his chair and smiled.

Reluctantly Miranda gave him her coffee mug and poured herself another one. Shepard (at this point in his life was living the dream, he didn't have to worry about money. He was retired and now lived in gods waiting room which is a Nick-name people have for florida for those of you who don't know) he also had a tee-off at ten with Jacob taylor. He was also taking retirment well, their little girl, Emma was currently waiting for the MSV Earth to be complete, she was a highly skilled Marine Lt. who was a no-brainer for Ryan.

Nora hadden't recieved confirmation from him about her application but she remained hopefull. And it was about to pay off.

"Nora something came in the mail for you today." Miranda handed her a letter.

Ryan thought it would be classy if he had actual paper-mail sent as acceptance or notification of, entry onto the Earth. Nora took the letter with a puzzled look and opened it with a mouthfull of Cap'n crunch.

She pulled out and ID card with her photo on it and transfer papers.

"Oh shit." She dropped her spoon and stared at the contents of the envalope.

"We're at the table." Miranda reminded her.

She was too excited to care as she showed her parents the letter and ID card.

"Oh shit." Miranda repeated as she looked at the transfer papers. She showed them to Shepard and he smiled.

"Well you're a real Sailor now." He said.

"I can't belive it, i'm going on the most important expidition in human history since Mars and the Sol relay."

"Well, you'd also be dealing with a multi-species crew and...oh that's just awesome." Shepard said as he read her transfer papers.

"What?" Nora asked.

He started to laugh and Miranda looked at them then made a face. "Sorry Nory can't win them all."

"What!?" She demanded.

"You report to Captin Williams at 0800 Friday." Shepard said.

"Good luck with that." Mirada said sitting back in her chair sipping from her mug.

"Who's Captin Williams?" Nora asked.

Shepard looked up and shut down his omni-tool and looked his daughter in the eye.

"That's beside the point, Nora this is serious. Five years. Deep space."

"Ok." She said looking at him. "And? You two spent more than that on the Normandy. And not to mention that's when you met."

Miranda nodded her head. "Well techinically we met when he groggly woke up from being blown up."

"That did hurt." Shepard pointed at his wife and then turned his attention back to Nora.

"Five years, no port. Just space, can you handle that? You've never served on a vessel before."

"I've been in space before." Nora reasured her parents.

"Nory that was twenty years ago on a feild trip to Mars." Her mother said.

"Well I-I spent five days on a ship in basic." She nodded, smiling.

Her parents looked at each other then back at Nora.

"We're not trying to talk you out of it, just letting you know what to expect." Shepard said reaching for Noras' hand.

"Well, it kinda sounds like and intervention. Mom, Dad it's space not red sand."

Miranda rolled her eyes. "Out of all the things you could have picked up from your father you chose sarcasim."

She stood up and walked back to the coffee pot, Shepard beckoned with his thumb and pointed at Miranda.

"However you've got the body your mother did thirty years ago." He winked as Miranda instantly turnned around giving him the death glare. She walked over and bent down to Johns eye level.

"I still have the body I had thirty years ago, and you know it." She kissed his forehead and went back into the kitchen.

"Bet your ass you do." Shepard stood up and followed her.

"Ew, dad i'm right here."

"What was that?" He said pretended not to here her which was normally the que for her to leave.

"I haven't even finished breakfast yet!" She complained.

"Don't care." He called back.

"Damnit..." She sighed and picked up the transfer papers and ID card. Looking down she felt a rush and then looked back to the kitchen and made a face.

"Please...I can handle five years away from you teenagers." She said walking out the front door and away from her parents, things just got a whole lot better for Nora Shepard.


	2. Dark passenger

**Earth**

**20 years ago**

**year-2200**

**San Antonio TX**

**Public school councilors office.**

**Elana Flint**

Mr. and Mrs. Flint sat outside in a waiting room with thier twin children Maggie and Tyler Flint(8 years of age). They were waiting for the councilor to give them his professional opinion on Tyler and his behavior. He was unattached to people and only seemed to care about his family he never socialized much and kept to himself only now did they find that he had a certain strangness to him, his biotics were natural and he got them from his mother who never had to use an amp. Something she boasted about regularly when talking about the reaper war.

Tyler, had been seen hurting animals and just recently his father caught him killing the neighbors dog because it wouldn't stop staring at him and he said it annoied him. The implications frightened his mother who was anxiously holding her husbands hand as the two children waited patiently. Tyler was sitting slouched in his chair, bored out of his mind, Maggie looked up to him and tried to mimick his slouch.

"Sit up." Elana told her children, in her calm motherly tone.

"But-" Maggie began

"Sit."

"Mom-" She interjected.

"Up."

Tyler sat up without a word , while Maggie grugingly straighted herself up. Maggie looked to her twin brother for just about everything, even the way he moved and talked she tried to mimmick which of course was Elanas second concern. If Tyler was killing animals then she was affraid Maggie might think that's normal (hint-hint, it's not).

Gerret(Mr. Flint) Looked over at his son who sat next to his mother.

"You're gonna be fine Tyler, they just want to talk to you." He reasured, but he saw that his words had little effect on his child as he was transfixed by the image of the crusifixtion above the doorway.

"Why is their a dead guy on the wall?" He asked.

"Honey we talked about this that's Jesus, and you're suposed to respect him." He said, walking over to him.

Elana being a native Brit and Gerret being from Texas where both protestant christians, Gerret took his fath a little more serious than Elana did but that's just how he was raised. Gerret sat down on the back of his calves and looked his son in the eye.

"Why?" Tyler asked.

"Because he's god."

"God of what?"

"Everything." Gerret replied.

"Everything?"

"Everything." He reasured him again.

"Then why is he being killed?"

"Because people don't like change." Gerret said as he ruffled his sons hair.

"Well if he's god then why dosent he force change? Or kill the people who killed him?" Tyler found religions facinating or rather he found the people that followed them hallarious. Worshiping a dead guy made no sense to him, and that's all any religion was, as he saw it.

"Because that's not what good people do." Gerret said as he took a seat next to Tyler.

"But what defines a good person?" He asked.

"How old are you again?" His father looked around smiling.

"When I was your age I was in school-"

"I'm in school." Tyler interupted.

"Let your father finish." Elana warnned him, manners were important to instill into a child like Tyler. He questioned everything and he studied everything around him, he also had an uncanny eye for detail.

"As I was saying, I was in school and that was pretty much my life until sixteen."

He winked at Elana. She rolled her eyes and looked around for the councilor, they had been wiating for Tys' test results for at least thirty minutes.

"What happened when you turnned sixteen?" Maggie chimed in, they all looked at him waiting.

"Go ahead love, tell them what happened when you turnned sixteen." Elanas voice had a tone of playfullness and repremand, a tone she only used with her husband.

Gerrets face went white and he looked around. "Uh...video games."

Tyler cocked his head to the side and looked up at his father, "Loser, most kids that age experiance puberty and sexual intrest." He stated bluntly.

Elana turnned away and started to laugh as Gerret just smiled and nodded before asking his age again, all while Maggia was trying to contemplate the words "puberty" and "Sexual intrest".

The councilor came out of his office and smiled seeing that everyone was in a good mood. "Well it's good to see everyone's in good spirits, May I speak with you two alone, please?" He said pointing at Elana and Gerret. They walked into his office leaving the two children in the waiting room alone.

Tyler slid off the chair and walked over to a near by bookshelf.

"Ty, mom said to stay sitting." Maggie said as he walked over to the shelf.

He got down on his bottom and started scooting towards the bookcase, he turnned his head around.

"Happy?" he said.

Maggie shrugged and hopped off her seat and followed him. He stood and began to browse through the books, He found a copy of each bible and some coloring books as well as a few dated magazines and some other childrens books. He found a few crayons on the coffee table that sat in the middle of the waiting room and picked up a coloring book.

"Can I have some crayons?" His sister asked.

"Can you?" He responed.

"Don't be a meaner."

"That's not a word." He corrected.

"Dont't. Be. A. Meaner." She said hands on her hips emphasising her pseudo word.

"You're insufforable."

"You're in-soff-uble." She said.

Tyler then did what he should have done a minute ago and handed her a red crayon.

"Thanks Ty!" She walked over to the shelf and picked up a coloring book and sat accross from him. They sat quietly together while waiting for their parents.

"Mr. and Mrs. Flint, I'm sorry to say, or rather I wish we caught this sooner. Your son is a sociopath and he's teatering on the edge of physcopath."

"What?!" They said in unisine and suprise.

"You can't be serious." Elana said in disbelief as the councilor brought up his test results.

"We did a simple and complex test for your son, he...well we don't like to use the word fail in this situation but for lack of a better term, he failed it."

"Can he take it again?" Gerret asked.

Elana looked at him and wanted to hit him. A psychological test dosen't change results over night, it takes years to form a mind and apperently Tylers was being formed in a different way.

"Did we do this?" Elana asked.

"Oh no Mrs. Flint, a sociopathic mind isn't contageous nor can it be caught, it just simply is." He said.

"Further more you must not associate this term with psychopath however it is a slippery slope. Tyler is detached emotionally, he just dosen't feel how we feel, guilt, love, commitment. These are just words to him he only seems to care about his family, which is good however the way he worded it was of course strange to us."

Their was a pause before anyone spoke Gerret and Elana were waiting until Gerret spoke up.

"Well, what did he say about us?" He asked.

The councilor paused again beofre speaking as if to reword what Tyler had said and then decided to tell them the whole truth.

"He said that he appriciates you. And all that you do for him, it's the closest thing to love i'm affraid he'll ever get."

He removed his glasses and rubbed his shirt on the lenses. Elana looked distraught and stept outside the room, Gerret stayed inside with the councilor.

"Tyler." She walked over to her child. He colored neatly and inside the lines with a blue crayon and was visibly angry at Maggie who went completely outside the lines.

"Tyler, come here." She held her hands out for him to hug her, slowly he stood up and reluctantly hugged his mother. Se didn't let go and held on for a moment before releasing him she rested her hands on his sholders and looked him in the eye.

"Tyler, mommy and daddy love you very much, understand?"

He looked as though he had to force the words out, even then he anwsered in the form of a question like a student who was unclear whether or not their answer was correct.

"I love you guys too." He said.

Elana rubbed the back of his head and then turnned around to see Gerret and the councilor standing outside the office. She stood up and walked over to them Gerret was looking a little distraught, as the councilor spoke with Elana.

"It's much easier for Tyler to be himself these days. There's a school for him in Canada-"

"Canada?!" Elana almost cried, he was her baby, and she didn't care if he liked it or not he was hers.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Flint, but that's the only one of it's kind." He looked to Gerret to reasure her. Gerret walked over to his wife and hugged her.

"Hon' this is all we got, if he's ever gonna have a life. He wont have to hide there, he can be with other kids like him."

"Yeah I guess you're right, but we can visit him right?" She looked to the councilor and he nodded.

"Oh yes, although most parents don't." He shrugged.

"Well we're not most parents." She said.

Tyler Flint graduated top of his class in 2210 shortly after Maggie. Their cerimoney was Ironicly long for students who had no emotional attachment. Maggie was containing laughter as her brother looked utterly bored and unenthused about graduating highschool. He just wanted to go home, Tyler was one of the very few students who went home for the holidays and he perfered the bed at his parents house.

"It knows me. And I know it."

Tyler decided that he, like many of the students that went to the school. Would join the Alliance, special forces had a few sociopaths and used them as assassins because they never hesitated, as well as scientists they typically were only bound to a simple ethical code. But Maggie was just as talented as Tyler and just as physically cappable as Tyler, they were inseperable due to her not wanting to leave him alone, and Tyler felt like she was the only "normal" person he could be truely honest with

They were accepted into N-school after their second year in the Alliance. Tylers biotics also made him a top canidate, not to mention his sister was a crack-shot with a rifle. At twenty-five they were the youngest N7s that were enlisted (current record being 24) and they were also one of the Alliances best kept secrets. They were mainly used for fugitive apprehension and were in the tail end of the Yagh war. Taking part in sabotage missions on the Yagh homeworld that led to the yaghs defeat, giving them a impresive reputation.

By the end of the Yagh war they earned a simple nickname that struck fear into the hearts of their enemy, "The twins".

**Omega**

**Afterlife**

**10:00 P.M.**

**The Twins**

Tyler hated it the minute he walked in, loud music, drunk people and strippers. Maggie couldn't really care less, she was there to do a job and a job is what she planned on doing. Now maybe she also planned on grabbing a drink and flirt with the guy at the bar who seemed to be built quite well and let her brother wander a bit, but if he did their would be a body count for sure. Tyler was taught specifically not to kill people but aliens weren't people, the only person who knew about his obsession was Maggie but he kept it under control. They're on Omega, all he had to do was lift his gun, shoot and he'd hit a drug dealer or a murder hoestly it didn't matter as long as he got his kill.

They were in civilian clothes because Alliance black ops was strickly forbidden in the terminous systems, if they got caught the operatives would be publicly exicuted and sent back into citidel space. It's happened before but not in a while.

"Hey Ty how about you talk to the bar tenders and I'll take the dance floor. Ok? Ok." She followed a group of people onto the dance floor and did her "job". Tyler of corse couldn't get a word in and just went with it. He saw that the bar tender was a female turian, probubly because of all the turian males that were at the club. He set his hand on the counter and she aproached.

"What'll it be babe?" She put a glass infront of him, and he put seven Citidel space credits on the table.

"Well now, I take it you want something off-menu?" She peered up at him as she took the money. He stopped her, putting a hand on hers as she reached for the credits.

"Information. Is there any for sale?" He wanted her to say no very badly.

"Yeah, what do you want to know?"

"Liam Darcey. I need to find him, preferably alive and bring him back into Alliance space. Alive." He was sure to work in that he wanted his cusin alive, thinking that it would coax him out of hiding.

"Oh, so you're one of those N7s that's looking for him?" She playfully placed a hand on her chin contemplating wether or not she should tell him where the captain has sailed off to.

"If you want the money I wouldn't publisize that." Tyler remained calm on the outside but on the inside he already found six ways to kill her excluding the pistol strapped to his chest under his left arm.

"Look I don't give out info on regulars, it's bad for buisness."

"Ok, thank you for your time." Tyler left the credits and walked away. He walked out to the parking lot that was off to the right of the club and notified Maggie he was chasing a lead. He waited five hours for the turian woman to get off shift and walk to her car. He was surprised she had one, most Omegans were to poor to afford one.

"Not who we seem to be, are we?" He said under his breath.

Her started his car and followed her to an apartment complex that looked like it might have more than two stars. He waited for her to walk in then used a thermal scanner to follower her though the hallways. Wallpaper was falling off at the top of the walls and the walls themselves were paper thin. Tyler waited for her to exit the elevator before he went up and followed the turian to her room. He thought for a second deciding on how he should approach this fortunatley he had some time to think, but as usual he knocked first and stood outside the room with his wepon drawn.

She open the door rubbing her eye, "Who is it- Oh shit." She slammed the door but Tyler caught it with his foot and kicked it in tossing her to the side. The apartment was small and had one bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room. Tyler grabbed her arm and threw her into her couch in the living room, he kept his gun visible and made sure she saw it.

"So, I take it you're on Arias payroll?" He looked around and saw a few nice things that Omegans would consider luxury.

"Yes, i'm a bar tender. What to learn how to make a salarian sun-rise?" She said folding her arms and crossing her legs.

Tyler laughed and holstered his pistol. "I love the jokers, you know why?"

"Why?" She remaind defiant.

He whipped out a cerraded blade and stuck it in her knee. She screamed in pain as he left it in and tugged on her knee-cap.

"Because they're easy to brake." He kept the knife still as she struggled, trying to keep the pain from getting to her.

"You want Darcey? Fine, the only reason I didn't give him away is because he's doing a job for Aria." Panting she tried to relax her muscles in her leg.

"Go on." His hand remaind firm on the knife.

"He's on a planet call Torsal Nym. I don't know where that is but I know it's in the outer rim."

Tyler sat back pulling the knife out he stared at the blue blood that ran down the blade as well as her leg. No one would miss her, he thought. What would Aria care if she went missing, people die everyday on Omega espesially from homoside.

"I gave you what you want, now get out." She had a slight tremble as she said so.

Tyler didn't say anything he flicked the knife letting the blood hit the kitchen island-counter and moved close to her.

"Don't even think about it Ty."

He stopped mid-step and turnned around to see his sister waiting at the door.

"How-"

"Long enough, we got what we wanted, lets go get Liam." She nodded in the direction of the elevator. He carefully placed his knife back in concealment and followed Maggie out of the room.

"Ha, taking orders from a woman, I bet you hate being carted around by a nanny you sick freak!"

His reflexes were lightning as he drew his gun and blasted a hole in her head. He lingered for a moment only to watch the blood fall from her skull then he walked over to his sister who was waiting in the elevator.

"I'm sorry." He said.

"You don't mean that." Maggie replied.

"No, I don't." He shrugged it off and watched the elevator doors close.

**Torsal Nym**

**Prospect**

**Population: Five-hundred twenty-two**

**Loading docks**

**Lenore Alder**

The sheriff waited outside on the horse drawn caridge. In the outer rim of the Terminous systems, high-tech (or working technology of any kind) was hard to come by and all of their money went into nessesities and mining. Mining is why they were there and the people were why sheriff Alder did her job. At fifty-two she was a veteran of the reaper war and a former N7 shadow-class operative. Lenore still carried a turian steel katana and on her hip was a laser pistol that could be drawn in seconds. She had blonde hair with a few grey strands and a single blue eye, the other was torn out by a husk and was never replaced so she kept a stylish black eye-patch over her left eye to cover her deformity.

Sporting a blue poncho that was a hand-made gift from one of the residents of Prospect she would be a cowboy if she was American(Native German). She waited with her krogan deputy, Nacmour Jax and fellow sheriff Colin Jamison. Jax had been with her for as long as Lenore was sheriff of the Shrike Abyssal, she caught him during a cattle raid (after the reaper war cows and most animals were nearly extinct making real cattle still hard to come by even 34 years after) he like most krogan only wore armor, and with the dry climate of Torsal, laser wepons were the primary weapon of choice.

Colin was Arias idea after a certain incident a few years back, now instead of one sheriff per system it was two. He was an older man at age seventy two with a impresive white mustache and wore a old Detroit Tigers baseball hat with a tan jacket over a slighlty worn-out plad button-up shirt and jeans.

Lenore started coughing and had to pull out a hankercheif and coughed into it. She glanced at it before putting it back in her pocket.

"Bad day?" Colin said as he hopped off the carrige.

She saw the blood on the rag and shrugged. "Ja, bad day." She sighed.

Looking up she saw a small turian cruiser in the air slowly coming to a hover above the landing pad. It was s smugglers ship if she ever saw one but when you work for Aria T'loak that's who you deal with.

Jax prepped the wagon for the supiles and walked over to the landing ship. Followed by Colin and Lenore adjusted her sword as she walked infront of the two and rested her hands on her belt. The ramp fell from the ship as it touched the ground and a Dark haired man walked down the platform and put on sunglasses, Lenore knew he looked familiar but didn't pay it much mind she just wanted the cargo. Walking up to the ship she was greeted by what looked like the captain

"Sheriff, nice to meet you i'm captain Darcey but you can call me Liam if you like." He looked like a total shmuck to Lenore, she locked up guys like him on a regular basis. And killed more than she'd like to admit.

"Sheriff Alder, you got my meds?" She asked, getting straight to the point.

"Yep, got my money?" And his friendly disposition was slowly etching away.

"Yeah back at the office, you can come with me after we get the meds loaded."

She sounded devoid of any kindness or comprimise it was her system, no one elses.

"Alright, sounds like a plan, you have anyone to watch my ship? My crew is a little tired and I think we're going to spend the night."

Lenore reached for a cigarette but Colin set his hand on her arm and gave her a solem look, she reluctantly shoved the pack into her jeans pocket. Giving a simple nod to Liam she walked back to the wagon and started coughing again. Colin walked onto the ship with Jax and helpped the crew of the Ostrich get the medical supplies onto the wagon.

"Man this is some stone age shiz-nit." Devin said as they put the containers in the back.

Felix gave a shrug in response, "Well the outer rim of the terminous dosen't have a lot of tech available, but aparently prospect has some great casinos."

"That we do, sir. That we do." Colin said helpping them put in the last crate.

"Colin, sind wir fertig?" Lenore called from the front of the wagon.

"Ja, sheriff." He responded. A lot of people on prospect learned german to get on the sheriffs good side, she respected people who knew it. A lot of languages went dead after the reaper war, practically no one spoke any european languages like german or italian which was where the reaper presence was the largest.

After loading the crates the sheriff had krogan gaurds sent to the Infamous Ostrich the crew followed Lenore and the others into prospect. Liam had been to the outer rim before but some of the others, Mara, Felix and Jason had not so they were surprised to see people going about their lives with little technological aide. The streets were crowded and full of people, vendors and other "odditites". They all cleared the way as the sheriffs wagon went down the street, once they got to the main street things cleared up mainly because the casino and resturant owners didn't want random carpet vendors infront of their stores. Devin had been here once before, he ran from the Alliance and Allyson was sent to get him and Torsal Nym is where she found him.

He was bussing tables at a hotel and resturant called Oasis. It is also the favorite drinking spot in town so a lot of fights break out, it's also one of the closest buildings to the sheriffs office. On their way to the doctors to drop off the crates the crew was stopped by many vendors and random salesmen of "exotic" wears.

"Ah yes you, pretty lady come see what I have." A salarian called out to Mara.

She simply kept walking and paid him no attention.

"Well what about you pr-miss lady."

Allyson turned her head and glared at the vendor, she was a little self consious of the nerual clamps that portuded from her skull. Most people probubly thought she did it to herself but the truth was much more horiffic, she was experimented on by cerberus once they realized the alpha serum had synthizied perfectly with her they used the nerual clamps to monitor brain activity. Their was a surgical proceedure to remove them but it was only avalible in citidel space, the one place the Ostrich dosen't sail.

She looked at the salarian, "Piss off." then walked away to catch up with the others.

They stopped to unload the cargo at the doctors and afterwards the sheriff staid but she pointed them in the direction of Oasis. There they could rent rooms and get some real food in their stomachs for once, now Oasis was ran by an older man named Manuel and his daughter Eva. Devin hoped they wouldn't recognize him when they walked in, it had been seven years after all and he had some light facial hair but other than that his skinny build and long dark hair remained.

Sheriff Alder remained at the doctors office to be looked over by the doctor. She sat on the doctors table and waited, she removed her sword, hat and poncho and her boots (the last one was for comfort rather than nessecity) She looked down at her toes and wiggled them as she waited for Doctor Forester to examine her.

"Sheriff, a pleasent surprise as always." He said walking into the room.

She nodded her head in aknowledgment. "Doctor."

He sat down at his desk and pulled out a physical file and searched through a few papers.

"Well your test results finally came in, again i'm sorry for the wait but we are in the outer rim."

He sighed and looked up at the sheriff from his chair.

"Lenore you have limited stage lung cancer." He tried to sound sympathetic.

Lenores head fell at her neck, she took in a breath then brought her head back up, "Okay...what do I do?" She asked.

"Well fortunatley for you, Lung cancer these days isn't quite as serious. And it seems it's only in one lung and hasen't spread to your lymph nodes yet, now with the medical suplies we just got we can treat you as soon as tomarrow, how does that sound?"

"Gut, Doctor very gut. What is the success rate of the proceedures?"

"Very high, don't worry sheriff, soon you'll be able to chase down criminals and shoot bad guys. But until then take it easy, doctors orders." He smiled and handed her some pills.

"For the cough, this should keep it down but it wont stop it."

"Danke." She poped a pill as she slid off the table. Tossing her poncho over her sholder and grabbing her hat on her way out Lenore saw two very Alliance-type looking people walking twoards Oasis. She was an N7 until the reaper war ended, she knew how they dressed on terminous mission, The mans hair was finley buzzed leaving him almost bald but that's not what gave him away. His standered issue laser pistol ment to make him look like he was from the terminous systems but it actually gave him away, because the Alliance gave them all the same one. The woman had one too, they were fixed on Oasis and didn't stray from their path.

"Scheibe."

Lenore set her hat on her head and pulled out her pistol checking the cooling chambers. She had ten shots before it over heated before she had to pop a thermal clip into the cooling chamber. She flicked the chamber open and made sure it was full then flicked it back into the gun and holstered it.

"Sorry doctor, Arias' rules superceed yours." she walked toward the inn hopefully she could solve this peacfully, which ment they'd just spend the night in a jail cell instead of six-feet under.

**Citidel**

**Human embassey**

**Ad. Ashley Williams**

**9:30 p.m**.

Admiral Williams was stuck with the grave-yard shift at the embassey, she was stuck eating take-out and reading mission reports from beyond the master relay. She wasent really reading the reports so much as falling asleep infront of them while shoving chicken teriaki and noodles in her mouth. While waiting for another Officer to take her place at the desk, at least one Alliance admiral remains at the embassey on the citidel with the ambassidor. And in true Alliance fashion instead of her own ship, an admiralty board thought that she wanted a desk job, granted it was only for a year but it felt like an eternity.

She had a mouthfull of chicken and noodles when the intercom buzzed she clicked it and waited for the front desk receptionest to speak.

"Admiral Williams their is a man from the Alliance central intelligence agency waiting for you."

The ACIA? She thought, what do they want with me? She told the front desk to send him up and she straightend herself up. She grabbed her admirals coat and slipped it on, she opened a drawer and fit the take-out container in it but dropped it and the contents spilled all over her lap.

"Mother fu-"

"Admiral Williams."

She looked up and saw a tall man who couldn't tie a tie and wore a nice old fashion suit that made him look a little distinguished. She was surprised that he stood at attention most ACIA goons didn't respect rank.

"At ease." She nodded as she brushed her legs off.

"Problem Admiral?" He pulled out a hankercheif and handed it to her, she thanked him and started rubbing the teriaki sauce off her uniform.

"So...what is it you want exactly mister?" She asked sitting down.

"Jacob Ryan, And I'd like to speak with you personally about a opportunity."

"What kind?" Ashley sat back in her chair crossing her legs, she was annoied that the admiral skirt that she wore forced her to cross her legs like a "lady", one knee over the other instead of one ankle over the knee.

"The kind that makes history, Admiral we want you to captain the MSV Earth."

She raised an eyebrow, she haddent had her own ship since the Normandy and that was fifteen years ago. And now they wanted her to go beyond the master relay? Maybe she could one-up Shepard after all.

"Sounds good, but what's the catch? You expect me to believe this is purely a scientific expidition?"

Ryan paused narrowed his eyes then leaned forward. "Do you accept or don't you?"

"Does that mean i'm right?"

Ryan swallowed, "Do you, or don't you?"

They just met and he was already giving her an ultimatum maybe not her type but she could see why he was in his position. He was a few years younger but he comanded respect through experience that she could tell he had. People of experiance had a certain air about them, especially ones that were in positions of power.

"I do, now what's the catch?" She leaned forward uncrossing her legs.

"I believe it has something to do with your former CO."

"Jameison? He's retired what could he have...oh."

He looked at her deadpan. "Shepard, I'm talking about John Shepard."

"Why wouldn't you be?" She stood up revealing the large stain on her skirt.

"I suggest speaking to him once you are releaved of embassey duty tomarrow. You'll have a week of shore leave before you go to project base on Luna."

"How long will I be on Luna?" She asked.

"About a year, we'll be training the rest of the crew physcologically and physically."

He stood and held his hand out. "I'll see you in a few days when we have the crew together."

She took his hand and shook it he saluted her then she returned the jesture.

"I hope you wont mind the demotion from admiral to Captain."

"Oh, I don't mind." She smiled as he walked out. She was exited to say the least, finally she'd get her own ship not Shepards not someone elses used vessel but her own fresh ship. Hopfully they'd find a better name than Earth but that was something that she might be able to fix. either way Ahsley Williams was going to run her ship right, better than good better than Shepard. She didn't mean to sound like a bitch (Story of Ashleys life) but she wanted to be better than Shepard because he was a hell of a bench mark, if she could be as good as he was then maybe she'd have a shot.


	3. New Beginings

**Torsal Nym, Prospect**

**5:00 P.M.**

**Oasis Hotel and saloon**

**Devin Baker**

Devin saw her, clear as day he made sure not to make eye contact with her but she kept looking over at him. Eva, the daughter of Manuel (Owner of Oasis) when he was hiding in Prospect he worked at this hotel as a bus boy/ janitor/ electrition, the old man was a little cheap. But he and Eva got a little close or rather she got a little colse to him, personally at the time Devin just coundn't be in a relationship and did his best to make sure that Eva knew he wanted to be friends and just friends. But on a planet with all the men her age taken Eva was on the persistant side, she really liked Devin when she met him. He had fair skin and dark hair unlike most of the sun scorched people of Prospect, Devin also at the time emmited a real bad boy feeling that drove her crazy.

All the guys on Prospect were either miners, famers, salesmen of some sort and the good ones were taken. Not to mention he had black nail polish that looked like it needed to be re- applied that was also a strange turn-on for her. Because of that Devin had to keep a clear aura of friendship around her, he sat at a table with his friends and crewmates waiting to be served.

Flelix, Mara and Jason were looking at menus while the others knew what they wanted. Devin looked down as Eva walked over to take their orders.

"Hello welcome to Oasis, my name is Eva incase you need anything. Any of you know what you want?"

She looked around and noticed the pale dark haired man was covering his face with his menu rather suspiciously. Liam just ordered a drink while the two alien crewmen asked what half the human food was on the menu, by the time Eva got though explaining everything she had already brought everyones drinks and Jasons nachos.

"Those'll give you serious gas man." Allyson pointed out as Jason wolfed down the melted cheese and jalapeno covered chips. Another great perk to being almost pure energy is that he can convert most of the food he consumes into energy imediatley making him more awake. it's the main reason why he dosen't eat dinner otherwise he'd be up all night.

"No they wont." He said it as fact instead of disagreement like she should have known better.

"Oh right, iron stomach." She kicked back her beer and realized it was half empty.

"Uh, Eva can I have another one?" She pointed to her glass.

Eva gave a polite nod and walked away to get her another drink.

"I wish I had a genetically ultered organ system that made it impossible for me to get shit faced." Liam said leaning back in his chair.

The Alpha serum prevented Allyson from getting really drunk, she could get a mean buzz going but she could not get drunk. She shrugged and looked over to Devin.

"Isn't that the girl that I found you with?" She pointed with her thumb back at Eva.

"No...I don't think she even lives here anymore." He sipped his drink and sat quietly while Eva dripped off Allysons beer.

"Yes she is, that's why you get all quiet when she walks by." She pointed out to the others who were getting increasingly more interested.

Deivn then started to difuse the situation. "Now wait a minute I-"

"Jason read his mind!" Mara tapped Jasons sholder and pointed over to Devin.

He shook his head. "That is an invasion of privacy and-"

"Captains orders." Liam got most of his enjoyment from the embarassment of his crewmates, infact that's how they all got enjoyment these days. They had spent the last week in space, no planetside just the void.

"Jason." Devin warnned.

"Well Dev it's captains orders, what am I going to do?"

Devin raised his voice in defense of himself. "If the captain told you to jump off a bridge would you?"

"That question is irrelovent, I can fly." He said deadpan. Jason was held captive for the first eighteen years of his life, he was kept in a luxury appartment however agaist his will. He didn't have a real sense of sarcasim so a lot of stuff went over his head. For such an enlightend being he was pretty dense.

"Fine then yes, I know her ok? Now leave it alone, it didn't exactly end well." He relaxed a little as he sat back in his chair.

Allyson waited for a moment then asked the obvious. "Well...how did it end?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

The crewmates looked to Jason and called his name promting Devin to block him out from his head. Jason cluld read minds, not very easily but he could if he concentrated he could although it only worked on people he'd been around for a while it's why he can sometimes hear Head of cerberus Richard Brenks since he was the only person he talked to for eighteen years. But Deivn could block him out becuase he could feel him inside his head and make him leave.

"He Is thinking about sex things." Jason said matter-of-factly.

This caused the others to laugh but Devin countered the statement.

"Dude I blocked you out."

"I know but I took a wild guess seeing as it's what most of the other male crew mates think about on a daily bases, especially-"

Felix and Liam cleared their throats rather loudly before Jason could finish his statment. The crew of the Ostrich rarely had time for...recreational activities. They were to busy keeping themselves safe from the Alliance or some other government that wanted them dead.

Mara and Allyson akwardly sat quiet for a moment looking at their fellow male crew mates.

"They also stare at your butts." Jason looked at Mara and Allyson and then continued eating his nachos.

"Last time I walk away from one of you guys." Allyson said as she topped off her first drink.

"No, Devin sees you more as a sister he never had type of deal."

"Awww, that's so sweet." Mara said sounding genuine.

Allyson smiled as she uncapped her drink with her bare hand and looked over at Devin.

"Sister huh?"

They certainly acted like it she was six years older than Devin and they trained rough, he once threw her across the ship with his biotics and she just came right back at him with a staggering gut punch. When dealing with super beings one must train like they fight; deadly.

Devins face turnned red and Liam and Felix just slowly left the table and found seats at the bar. Devin nodded at the others then stood up and walked out of Oasis he was almost knocked over as a man and a woman hell bent on walking into the hotel past him, the woman apologized but the man kept walking like no else exsited. Her storm grey eyes caught Devin off gaurd as she looked him up and down then smiled politly. She turnned back around and followed her friend. He stepped outside and the sheriff slowly sauntured into the saloon and found a seat at the bar.

Devin sat on the fromt porch of the establishment and watched people walk by. He could just fly away and live in the stars not having to worry about all the stupid problems that people created for themselves on a daily basis. He wasen't even human and neither was Jason, and yet they staid with the other sapient species and dealt with their emotions and day-to-day struggles. Honestly living among the stars like some would-be god sounded cool but it was lonely and he had friends that cared about him and he cared about them. They depended on him for survival as he did them, friendship was the only kind of relationship he could handle even if he found women atractive he still wouldn't know what to do with them.

Hey i'm a super being made of dark energy, wanna party? That was the pickup line that came to mind. Not to mention all the time they spent in space, on some level he wanted a relationship but on another he knew it was simply impractical and a little selfish.

"Hey Devin."

He jumped and cursed as her turnned around and saw Eva standing infront of him. She was still wearing an apron and her her dark hair was pulled back in a pony tail, her big brown eyes shown in the sunlight.

"You shouldn't cuss so much." She reminded him.

He smiled at the remark and then tried to lean agaist the porch railing but couldn't quite find it with his hand so he put them in his pockets.

"Eva...hi."

She laughed, "Hi, where have you been? And who are those people you're with?"

"Those are my crewmates, I'm a private contracter right now, we just delivered medical supplies here and decided to stay a day or two."

He wish he didn't say that last part.

"Will you be here tomarrow?" She asked.

He couldn't lie she wasen't a bad person, far from it. He just didn't want to hurt her again. She was pretty sad last time he left and he didn't want to see her that way.

"Yeah I will, we should go for a walk...maybe?" He couldn't tell if she still felt the same way but maybe if they had time to talk things could be less akward. He still however wasen't interested.

"That sounds nice, I'm not sure if my dad would let me but I can find someone to cover for me. Anyway I better get back inside we're kind of busy." She smiled and turnned around.

Devin couldn't help but watch her walk back to the door and as she turnned around he imediatley looked up at her face. She didn't say anything she just smiled and went back inside. Devin shook his head then realized how big of a moron he was, he was falling into human emotions the very ones he had worked to surpress after he met Jason. Before he met Jason Devin belived himself human (some would say he still is) for eighteen years he thought he was just a very acceptional biotic it wasen't until they found themselves on Earth in the project Alpha building working to save Allyson did they realize he was almost entirley dark energy. But that didn't really solve much at all it only raised more questions.

Like how is he in the form of a human being? He would meditate with Jason to find the answers from within but he was going to have to seek them out even if it ment showing his true form. All he had to do was focus hard enough and his physical body would evaporate into potential energy that he could do what ever he wanted to do with.

He raised his hand close to his face and let it drift off into the wind. Like his hand was made of sand it blew away into the air, he made it stop then come back. He looked up and saw a unfortunatley recognizable Batarian, Hanhar Valik.

**Five minutes ago**

**Torsal Nym, Prospect**

**Maggie Flint**

She bumped into a guy with long dark hair, he was good looking enough to apologize to so Maggie turnned around and said sorry. She lingered a moment watching him look at her eyes then returned to the business at hand, they were sent to apprehend Liam and bring him back to the Alliance. Ryan had cut a deal for him and his crew and all he had to do was serve a year in prison. His crew of outlaws was easy to spot at least the aliens and the super soilder were, the walking WMDs as Ryan described where no where in sight. However the latest image they had was Seven years old, and considering they were both only eighteen at the time ment that they looked a little different now.

Not the best intel but it was irrelovent once they located their older cusin Liam. He was their cusin through their mothers sister-in-law even though Caroline Darcey was no longer a Darcey she kept the name until she remarried, just easier that way. Liam spotted them the moment they walked in and Maggie knew it by the way he flinched slightly when they bumped into the dark haired man, he didn't run which was a good sign. Tyler pulled out a chair and left it open for his sister, she sat down at the bar and looked over at Liam.

"Hey."

He moved his head over and then shook it. "Well shit, they did send you two. This is gonna be a weird thing to explain to Elana."

"Aunt Flint." Tyler corrected.

"Oh I almost forgot about your OCD, how does this look?"

Liam took a napkin and dabbed some condensation from his beer glass on it then poorly folded it in half and set it on the bar top. Tyler chuckled then looked at his cusin.

"Please If a napkin is what set me off I'd have been in prison by now." His humor was always a little unsettleing for Liam, especially when they were teenagers. Tyler always pulled a weird ass stunt when he was over for the hollidays or rather Liam thought he just liked teasing him.

"Anyway," Maggie began, "It's time we got you back to Alliance space, so-"

Liam set his pistol on the table and looked at her dead in the eye.

"Then you're gonna have to be faster than your words cusin."

Tyler had his gun drawn imediatly while Felix, Mara, Allyson and Jason stood up and had their wepons ready in seconds.

"Like I said," Liam took a sip of his drink, "You're gonna have to be fast than your words."

He smirked as Tyler retracted his gun and set it in its holster then looked around to see the rest of the bar-goers waiting for a fight. In the back he caught a slightly older woman with a caugh and she put her gun away as well.

Maggie was a little irritated at Tylers short sightedness. It was always a pissing contest with those two, one simply had to be better than the other. Maggie thought it was childish even though she always took her brothers side.

"Liam we're not-"

She was interupted when a large batarian walked into the saloon witht the dark haired man at gun point "Captain Darcey! I gots one of your boys!"

He shoved Devin further into the saloon. Liam counted Lenore and his cusins as people who would also take his side, his crew would of corse shoot Hanhar down with out a second thought. However Devin was in the way, but not for long.

"Oh, no you don't!" Manuel the owner walked right in between Liam and Hanhar.

"Outside! We just had the walls done."

Hanhar snarled and ordered him to leave "Piss off old-"

"I agree."

After a lot of dramatic interupting, Lenore stood up and flashed her badge she was Aria out there and if their was one rule on Omega then their was one rule on Torsal Nym; Don't fuck with the sheriff. Hanhar lowered his weapon and cursed as Lenore pointed to the door. Then she looked at Liam and his friends.

"Well, get out there and fight."

They all looked at each other like she was crazy but the sheriff was serious. Hanhars Crew was ten men strong and Liams six man crew was now out-gunned. So he turnned to his family for support. Maggie sighed and looked at Tyler.

"We can't let him get killed."

"No, but Ryan didn't say anything about wounded."

"Ty."

"Fine." He walked outside and waited for the others. They followed and met him on the porch, Mara was curious as to what was going to happen as were the others. But Liam had a pretty good idea, Valiks men where lined up in the street waiting for them.

He took one look at them and noticed they were heavily armed and had their guns trained on them the minute they stepped out of the saloon. Liam looked over to Jason and gave a slow nod as they met Valiks crew in the street.

Mara tugged on Maggies shirt and whispered in her ear.

"Don't draw your wepons, Jasons got this one."

Maggie put a hand on Tylers keeping him from reaching his wepon. He strirred slightly but took her hint and relaxed, she turnned her attention to Jason who had stepped next to Mara and waited for a moment to strike. Jason stepped infront of the others and looked at the wepons pointed at him.

"Darcey, get this fucking kid out of the way!" Valik sneered.

"I want your teeth!" The batarian clentched his fist and pulled out his gun. Hanhar walked slowly up to Jason and pressed his pistol againsy his head. Jason stood still unphased as the wepon was pressed against his forehead.

"Is this what you want? Your crew dying for you?" He shook his head and gave a synister smirk.

"Weak." He said as he pulled the trigger.

Nothing, He pulled the trigger again still nothing. The thermal clip over heated and popped out on it's own.

Hanhar was bewildered as he checked his weapon, Jason grabbed Valiks arm and it began to melt. Liam and the rest of his crew pulled their wepons and fired at Hanhars crew while they were distracted by their bosses screams of pain. Hanhars men quickly noticed the shots being fired and ran for cover, as did Liam and his crew. They took cover behind street carts and buildings taking turns firing at each other.

Lenore decided to take Liams side seeing as Hanhar started the fight. She took out one of Valiks men with a clean shot right between the eyes. Liam looked over to see his cusin unfolding a vindicator MK 5 assault rifle from his back, it was hidden under a cloak-like coat. He returned fire killing another two of Valiks men. Maggie only had her laser pistol but she was pinned down by enemy fire and couldn't see any of the people shooting at her. Hanhar was ignored by all as he crawled to cover behind a street cart and wrapped his arm.

Liam looked around for Devin but couldn't see him, Felix was next to him so tapped his sholder.

"Do you see Devin?" He asked.

Felix fired a few shots off in the opisite direction then turnned to Liam and shrugged. "No."

Allyson moved up, the only thing separating her and one of Hanhars men was the wall of a vendors hut. She smashed her hand threw the wall and pull him out, she finished him off with her pistol as he hit the floor. She heard a mist being sprayed behind her and she saw a dark mist srounding one of the enemies and he was choked out. The mist dispersed and then reformed into Devin, he ran up next to Allyson doging a few shots and took cover with her behind the broken vendor wall.

"I gues you own me one!" He shouted over the gun fire.

Allyson brushed the boast aside, "No, I'd say we're close to even." She hopped throught the vendors wall and found On of Valiks men, a turian holding a hostage.

She Held her hands up as Devin hopped in he was shot in the chest he fell over on his side and didn't move.

"No!" Allyson cried out.

Jason out of no where burst through the front of the vendors shop and with light speed flew through and hit the turian with enough force that Allyson could hear his bones break. She quickly turned to Devin to make sure he was ok.

Liam and Felix moved up with Tyler and Maggie. They stacked up against a building wall and waited as the last three of Hanhars men found a small strong hold inside a place that had a sign writen in asari above it. They fired at them from the windows and Tyler returned fire.

"Careful Ty their could be civilians in there!" Maggie warnned.

"Shit you're right. Hey cuz, you got a beat on'em?" He called out.

Liam went around the building and tried to get in from the back but he was welcomed by a shotgun blast. Fortunatley it missed and Laim took cover at the door.

"Nope!" He called back.

Maggie swore, the more time they spent with these idiots the less time they had to get back to Ryan. And time was of the essence the mission wasen't sanctioned by Alliance brass but by the ACIA. If they didn't get Liam back to the Sol system in three days they'd be branded traitors as well

"Hey Ty, think you can slap a biotic granade on these guys?" She asked her brother.

He weighed the options then shrugged, "If you distract them."

"Gotchya." Maggie took a quick breath then ran accross the street as fast as she could and jumped into a street cart full of salarian food. The plan worked while she ran Hanhars crew shot at her and Tyler was able to launch a biotic grande into the building. As it went off anyone in the vacinity was launched into the air and held there.

Laim took advantage and killed the shotgunner at the door as Tyler and Felix finished off the guys in the front of the building. Liam walked out of the front door and looked at the scene, not to much property damage but whoever owned the asari place was going to be pissed and he'd much rather be gone by the time they got there, but first he drew his wepon on his cusin.

"You here to kill me?" He asked.

Tyler very deadpan and calm put his Vindicator back under his coat and on his back then looked Laim in the eye.

"We wouldn't have spoken to you if we were here to kill you."

"Maggie would have."

"I'm not Maggie."

"Well, at least you're not having an idenity crisis." Liam said, he lowered his pistol and holstered it.

"If you're not here to kill me or bring me back to the Alliance. Then why are you here?"

"Talk to Maggie, she likes talking." Tyler was the most honest with his family members and if he couldn't be honest to them he might as well start killing people.

Maggie tossed her coat and removed her soup covered shirt, she wore a tank-top underneith and had a now visible bowie knife strapped to her waist on her left side opposite of her gun. In the terminous systems visible weponrey was very comon and infact it was encouraged considering their's only one rule. She walked over to Liam and Tyler as they exited the building with Felix in tow.

"Devin?" Allyson pulled him on his back and noticed their was no mark on him.

"Ow, what?" He moaned.

"You alright?"

"I was shot Ally, but yeah more or less i'm alright." A dark swirl formed where he was shot and then enclosed itself into him. After meditating with Jason he had learned to heal himself but not others.

"Well get up, we still have those Alliance guys to deal with."

As they left the vendors hut they saw Lenore cuffing Hanhar and pushing him towards the sheriffs office.

Allyson called out,"Thanks for the help sheriff!"

Lenore simply raised her hand in recognition of Allyson as she pushed Hanhar. Jason walked up to them and they decided to head back to the ship without Liam, Mara and Felix. They had enough prospect for one day, However Devin decided to stay and went back inside Oasis.

Maggie met the others in the middle of the street as the townsfolk were coming out of hiding and the mortitian was picking up the bodies.

"Liam we're not here to hurt you, Ryan sent us."

He smiled at he mention of his old handler, "He still dress like he just woke up?" He said.

Tyler nodded and Maggie continued. "Look he needs your help but he can't get it without if you're here, the ACIA reveiw board has cleared your name on one condition."

"Which is?"

"You and your crew have to spend a year in prison."

And at that Liam turnned away and began walking to Oasis. Maggie stood there for a moment then realized he wasen't coming back, she ran after him and pull him over to face her.

"Hey numb skull, we're trying to help you."

Liam jerked his arm out of her hand, " I don't need your help, Honestly me and the others are done with council space."

Felix tapped Liams arm,

"Uh, Liam are you listening to them? We can go home, don't you want to see your mom? Or go back to the citidel instead of this place? Because I do and so does Mara an Allyson-Allyson has finally saved up enough credits to get the surgery after this job it may be a year but who cares?"

Liam shook his head he found it insulting that Ryan had to send the twins to offer a plea bargan. In the seven years he had been tracking Richard Brenks he had found nothing but random cerberus bases and officers who wouldn't talk. He felt as hough he was loosing his touch as and ACIA agent and was becoming a ship captain instead.

"Fine...I'll speak with the others tonight."

Maggie smiled "Alright then."

Liam walked back into Oasis to wait for nightfall, then he'd head back to the ship with the others. He figure they deserved some rest and relaxation before they spent a year in prison. He'd have to take Maggie and Tyler with him because they had gotton there via shuttle so they really didn't have a way off planet if things went south, but they were efficiant so things rarely went south.

**Illium**

**Normandy SR2 dock**

**street cafe**

**Major John Murcurrio**

Major John Murcrrio second generation Alpha was sitting in a small lonley cafe he was fumbling with a sugar packet while he waited for his coffee. He pulled out a rosary that was given to him by an old friend he haddent seen in a while. She had given it to him on Karshan during the yagh war, he was injured and unable to move in a muddy trench. He had accepted death but it didn't accept him, his friend and comrad Allyson Parish saved his life in the assualt on a yagh base she made sure he was stable and gave him the rosary when she had to help her squad.

He told her to leave him but she didn't, he told her to "cut the shit an go" when she gave him the rosary but she didn't move. During Alpha training he was always there to pick her up when she fell, but in that moment it was John that needed Allyson. As he fumbled with the rosary he thought of the first day of training, two months before they were given the alpha serum...

"Alright you sad sacks of shit! Some of you here think you're gonna be super soldiers...pff, some of you may think you already are."

The drill sargent they used to condition the alphas was mean old cuss of a krogan, the alpha serum would be turning them into to krogan basically so they used one to train them. A little further back next to him were two science-y looking women one had short burnette hair and a paler complection while the other had bright red hair with freckles on her face and surprisingly tan skin.

Cpl. Debora Conley (Deseased) gave the drill sargent a wink as he said it. He of course made her run the length of the base, after he continued his words of encuragment. A total of one hundred marines entered the project, but only sixteen actually got the alpha serum.

"As I was saying-wait who are you?!"

A five foot nine inches one hundred and fourty-two pound Allyson Parish stood at attention with her bag slung over her sholder and a look of determination as she handed the drill sargent her transfer papers. He looked at them and then pointed to the line of marines standing infront of him, she stood in line next to John and stood waiting like the others.

Later in the cafeteria John found himself sitting alone as most officers do normally he ate with his troops but these weren't his troops, not yet anyway. They had a long way to go before they became an actual fighting unit. But not far from John he saw a another fellow officer sitting alone, Allyson was eating on the far side of the room like a angry teenager. After debating with himself John worked up the curage to go and sit with her.

She raised an eyebrow at him then noticed the rank that shown on his sholder and nodded as permission to sit with her. John was a rank above Allyson at master sargent and Allyson was just a sargent. Her dark brown hair was tucked behind her face as she ate. John sat down across from her and introduced himself.

"Master sargent John Murcurrio, second Alliance marine battalion, you are?"

She held out a hand for him to take as she introduced herself. She like most Alliance women had a strong grip and made sure to let the men know that they could do there job and maybe do it better.

"Sargent Allyson Parish, fourty fith space airborne."

"Space airborne?" John said curiously.

Allyson smiled, she did enjoy talking about her job she swallowed a bite of salsbury steak and answered, "We infitraite enemey space and-or sea aircraft. Without the use of a ship."

She smiled, it took a special kind of crazy to strap on a space suit to jump into the void and board an enemy ship. It was a long-time program of the Alliances', they picked it up from the turians during the first contact war.

"Damn, I just shoot stuff." He chuckled.

Allyson shrugged, she considered herself a bit of an adrenaline junkie. And being a super-soilder sounded pretty awesome, if only she knew the consequences then and there.

"So John, where are you from?" She asked.

"Manhattan New York."

"I'm from New York too, upstate Rochester."

John a little more intruiged asked another question,"So what brings you here? Ultimate power? Prothean strength and knowledge?"

"Eh, my CO recomended me and here I am." she finished her food then stood up and looked at John.

"Nice meeting you, hope you make it."

"Likewise."

She walked away and stacked her tray and left to cafeteria. John was pulled out of his daze when the waitress walked over to his table and poured his drink, he thanked her then poured in sugar and cream. Took a sip then set the mug down and ran his hand across his bald head. He had a scar from when he was injured during the yagh war, he caught a granade with his face. The only reason why he's still alive it the alpha serum it helped him heal fast and wore off any infections and his bones of steal that kept his brain untouched when it happened. His scar was left over from stiches, it went across his face on his right side and touched his nose as well as his ear and crawled under his chin as well. After seven years it still looked like it hurt

John didn't mind it actually brought him more respect for being an alpha especially after they were "decomissioned".

He let out a sigh as he rested his head on his hand and propped himself on the table. When a tall man sat down across from him and put out a cigar on the ashtray that was a few inches away.

"Who are you?" John moaned.

The other man who clearly didn't know how to tie a tie set a file on the table and waited.

**Luna base**

**4:00 p.m.**

**training room**

**Nora Shepard**

"Ow!" Nora was thrown to the ground by a strong punch.

"Damn kid, your dad told me you were a little...frale but, wow." Ashley stood over her looking down, she offered a hand and pulled Nora to her feet.

She rubbed her back and made a face, Nora had transfered to the project new horizions base on luna. They were training on the moon while waiting for the MSV Earth to be built they had to wait another year, mainly for stress testing for the crew as well as the ship. Five years is a very long time and if the crew can't make it at least one year on luna then their's no hope for them on a war ship for five years.

"You hit hard for an old lady." She smirked.

"Being a smart ass never helpped your dad and he was actually good at fighting." Ashley was feeling her age and left the sparing area to grab a drink, even if she spent the entire time beating on Nora, Ashley was still sixty-two. Her joints weren't what they used to be and neither was everything else, age had a way of making you reflect. But she still had a lot of living to do especially in the next five years. Nora stood up and followed her to the water cooler that was set up on a table with some food on it as well. They were treated a little better than most military operations, they were also waiting on luna for a small base to be built on one of the moons beyond the master relay as well as a refueling station.

They system that it lead to was very unremarkable but they hiped with further exploration they'd be able to find some interesting new places. The first ship past the master relay was of course the Normandy, it along with a fleet of frigates and cruisers to protect the builders.

"So you knew my dad before the reaper war?" She asked Ashley as she filled a water bottle.

"Before, during, after." She took a swig then offered some to Nora.

"What was he like? I mean he dosen't talk about the war much and neither does mom."

Ashley paused for a moment then set her water bottle down to answer. "You know Nora their is a reason why he dosen't talk about it, a lot of people died under his watch. He blames himself for most of it, especially the deaths caused by cerberus."

She wipped her face with a towel then tossed it at Nora.

"That's enough for one day, go shower you smell worse than I do."

Nora sat there for a moment before she headed to the shower room. The reaper war was extremely well documented considering the entire galaxy was involved, but their are no first hand accounts given by John Shepard himself. He did after all save the galaxy and possibly all of exsistance, even her mother wouldn't talk about it nor her aunt Oriana. In the long run it mattered little, now she needed to rest after getting her ass handed to her by an old lady. She was never good at physical activity, Nora always tried to excersise as much as she could but something prevented her from actually building muscle. She was toned but not strong and when you're in the military strength mattered granted she didn't plan on storming beaches but winning a one-on-one fight with a sixty two year-old woman should be easy.

Didn't matter anymore because now she could take the time to wash away her problems. Nora tossed her towel on the rack as she stepped into the shower room she found a nice corner shower then forgot that it was a military operation and she'd have to wait for hot water. Freezing cold water hit her and she jumped away, slipped then fell over on her back.

"Ow." She said it like a wimpering dog after it was stepped on.

She was glad no one saw that, no one saw that right? She looked around and did 't see anybody else. The worst part about the locker rooms was that they were co-gender now. Military profetionalism at an all time high is what people would say. More like the Alliance trying to save a buck, building on the moon was expensive and they cut a few corners when it came to personal comfort.

She carefully stood up so as to not fall again then waited for the water to become luke-warm. She washed her hair first being sure to get all the sweat out of it and off her body, sparring really worked up a sweat and an appitite Nora figured that she would head to the mess hall after she got dressed. She was on her way out when she litterally bumped into a crewmate on their way in.

She imediately blushed after realizing it was a male crewmate and he was head in the direction behind her.

"Oh, i'm so sorry." She said instinctively covering her chest as she brushed by him.

"No problem." He yawned obviously to tired to care, which was good and that would mean he wouldn't stare at her as she dried herself off. He popped his head out of the shower room and called out to her.

"Hey, you got any soap? I forgot to bring some."

"Well if you don't mind smelling citrius-y then sure." She tossed him her soap bottle and continued drying off. Either she was going slow or he was going fast because he was at his locker which was right across from hers after she took the towel off her head.

"Here's your soap back."

She akwardly took it back overting her eyes." Thanks."

"What's your name?" He asked finally putting underwear on making it a little less akward for her.

"Nora." She wanted to keep her last name out of the conversation as long as possible, the clumsy shy daughter of commander Shepard. Now that was a title, if only she could at least get the clumsy part out of it, then she'd be in buisness.

"Name's _Jack Shultz_, nice to meet you." He held out his hand for her to take, she shook it after applying a bra to her chest then she quickly put her pants on.

"Your in R and D aren't you?" He said getting dressed.

"What gave it away?"

"You're uncomfortable in the shower room, you're to old to be a new recruit so you're either a doctor or a scientist." He said matter-of-factly.

"Well I was a scientist but...now I work on anything that has an eezo core." She was a genetisit but she was also an impresive engineer as well as a clichè brainy girl. Nora was terrible at physical activity but she was almost a genius and could learn anything she set her mind to. She pulled her red engineering shirt over her head and slipped on the jacket that bottoned up over it.

"Impressive." He said in reply.

"Thank you sir, now I must bid you adew for I am hungry."

That sounded dumb, she thought but that was how small talk worked right? Dumb? Jack was had light brown hair and a bit of a tan Nora also noticed his physically impresive body and his intriguing hazel colored eyes. He also had a tatoo of a dove on his sholder, with the wing coming up to his neck. She didn't know the Alliance allowed it, but who cares it was hot.

"Me too, I don't really know anyone here uh, do you mind if I eat with you?"

Okay Nora don't F' this up just say something relaxed don't be eagar, just act cool.

"Yeah that's fine I'll save you a seat."

"Cool thanks."

Nailed it. She noticed that his uniform had no markings other than rank he was a first leutenent a superior officer to Noras low ranking ensign. Once she sat down she saw the clicks that formed, you had the Alliance marines all sitting together and the tech specialists together and then their was the aliens who sprinkled themselves all over and finally their was Nora and Jack who sat father down the table from the doctors. A gangly looking Salarian walked over to them and spoke.

"Is this seat taken?"

"Nah, sit down man." Jack pointed to the open seat next to him.

Fantastic now all they needed was a krogan and they'd officailly be outcasts. For Nora it was highschool all over again, all the jarheads were jocks and the nerds were even cooler than she was probubly because they understand physics like a second language.

"So, I'm Jack and this lovely lady is Nora, what's your name?"

Jack was a little upfront and loud he had a sense of humur and he was nice. He accepted the salarian without hesitation and seemed to only care about his food.

"Lenar, nice to meet you."

"What is it you do Lenar?" Nora asked.

"Funny you should ask."

Oh-boy.

"I'm actually a navigator-"

"But we don't know where we're going." Jack pointed out.

"Well they want me to map the area, it's pretty exciting. Mapping unkown parts of the galaxy." He smiled as he ate.

"So what is it you do Jack?"

"I'm an K7." He said it casually like it ment nothing.

"Wow, so can you kill me with like ten different items in this room?" Lenar said.

Jack just shrugged, he was pretty laid back from what Nora had seen so far. He didn't look like a K7 but maybe that just ment he was really good at it. Or the other way around. And Nora had no idea what a K7 was she new about letter designation and that 7 was the highest one any letter designated Alliance member she of course knew what the "N" designation ment because of her father.

"My dad was an N7 until he retired but I don't know what K means." Nora stated.

"I'm like a...well I can't talk about it." He smiled.

Nora glanced down at the table and shook her head. This just got a little more interesting, a section of the Alliance that was completely off limits? Interesting, she was curious as to what he was cpable of.

Lenar chimed in before he left the table. "Well, I hace work to do. It was nice meeting you two."

"And you as well Lenar." Nora shook his hand before he left.

They talked a little after they ate and Nora decided she wanted to head to bed, Jack joined her because he wanted to see if his roomates where nuts. Again the Alliance cut corners in terms of personal comfort and the barracks where also co-gender but not co-species. They were separated alphabeticaly for now usually on a ship they were separated by what job they did on the ship but that ment that SHepard and SHultz had the same room. Nora saw that the rooms had name tags and she tried to cover her name when Jack looked at it.

"Shepard? That's a funny last name." It went completely over his head.

"Well...so is Shultz."

"Nuh-uh." He said playfully as they walked in.

"I'm just gonna pick a bed and fall in." He said as he hopped on a top bunk. Nora grabbed the one underneith him and looked around at the rest of the crew. They were playing cards and having quiet conversation. All Nora wanted to do was sleep Maybe in the morning her engineering CO would be a nice guy, maybe.


	4. Reflection

"Hustle! You fucking panzy asses!" Major John Murcurrio may have looked like your average mild mannored super-soldier but he was one hell of a drill instructor. His squad of half-alphas were hand picked by Ryan to be injected with only half the Alpha serum. Hey, if you have the ablility to make super soldiers then why not test it on people who aren't offically in the Alliance. Former private military contractors or PMCs, Frank Wilson, Hannah Adams, Jean Dorian, Ray Hawkins and Jack Shultz were recruited from Xe a private military company that work on Earth mainly for the Chinese Federation and the United North American States, the Eruopian Union didn't hire PMCs.

"I swear on my mothers grave, if you sacks of shit can't run this next mile in five minutes i'm cutting your rations!" He was pacing as they ran the length of the three mile long track for the seventh time, in a total of fifteen minutes. Not as fast as the second generation alphas but the second gen alphas went crazy and started killing their allies. It shut down the program for seven years but the project lead Oriana Lawson dedicated the last few years to redeeming herself and her neice. Nora was black listed after the failure of project alpha and Ryan gave her a second chance because of Oriana. Nora was able to join the AEC (Alliance Engineering Corps) but Oriana was able to split the alpha serum into a "half-dose" of sorts it really was just a different formula based on the old one that only affected muscle and organ growth. They weren't as strong as the second gen alphas but they certainly were not going to have mental issues.

Oriana approached John and stood hands behind her back watching the Ks run, K was the designation given to them, Frank and Jack were the only K7s. While the second gen alphas showed extreme muscle and organ growth which made them noticabley taller than most humans, John was six feet seven inches and he used to be eight inches shorter. The Ks only grew two inches with the "half-dose" but they performed much better than any other soldier in the Alliance.

"A minute and thirty seconds, fuck-a-duck! drop and give me two hundred in five minutes if you do not finish in five minutes-" He bent down above Jean who had gotten in the push up position.

"You will run, again!" He shot back up and walked over to Oriana with a smile on his face he held out his hand.

"Miss Lawson."

"Major." She clasped his and and shook it firmly.

"How are you on this fine Lunar morning?"

"Quite well actually, how are they?" She looked over at the tired Ks who were finishing their push ups.

"Are you sure you should be working them this hard? They don't have your ablilitites."

"To forge steel, you must temper it in fire." He rested his foot on Hannahs back, she was the unfortunate last person to finish.

He looked down at her, "Fifty more."

Oriana chuckled at his explanation. "And where did you find that pearl of wisdom?"

"Fortune cookie ma'am, thought it sounded cool."

He heard a snicker from one of the Ks, Johns super hearing made it easy to pick out who it was.

"Hawkins, three laps."

Hawkins moaned which caused John to take the pressure off of Hannah and walk over to him, he got in his face and yelled.

"Something funny soldier!?"

"No sir."

"Then fuckin move your black ass!"

Reluctanly Ray began running his three laps, Jack tried really hard not to laugh at the black ass comment but the major turnned to him and held up three fingers. He walked over to Hannah who was just finnishing and forced her to the ground he looked at the others and then at Lawson.

"Go shower, eat, rest, return for combat training in two hours."

Ray and Jack began to walk towards the showers when John caught them.

"I sure do hope you princesses ran your laps."

He could hear them muttering curses as they finished their last lap. John walked over to Oriana to see why she was there, she usually contacted him via omni-tool instead of in person. So this must have been important, she handed him a data disk and smiled.

"It seems our friend sargeant Parish is coming back."

John looked at the disk then walked to his office in the training room, it wasent _his_ office so much as a shared office between the officers you used the training room. He inserted the disk into the terminal and a dosier of Allyson Parish as well as the crew of the Ostrich. It had a current picture of all of them, but they weren't pictures they were mug-shots.

"Where are they?" He asked.

"Bradbary corectional." She said after letting out a breath.

All blue collar prisons hand been moved off Earth and into either space or for the real criminals the poles of Mars. This made the death penalty virtually obsolete since now the criminals could be far away from the general population, Bradbary prison is located on the north pole of Mars which is not only surounded by water ice but frozen carbon dioxide as well(dry ice) not to mention the storms cause by the largest mountain ranges in the solar system, which no one has ever successfully climbed four have died and seven gave up half way through.

"Why are they there?"

Oriana shrugged. "With crime comes punishment John, sorry."

She sat down on the other side of the desk and saw the disapointment in Johns face Allyson was a good friend of his, she saved his life and that ment a lot to him. Now it was his turn to return the favor.

"When do they get out?" He asked.

"A year maybe more they don't have an official sentence." She replied.

"They're bound to New Horizons, but if they were training with the crew it would go a long way."

Nodding his head he stood up and started pacing, his heart was larger than most humans which ment that when it started beating fast he had to use the energy. It beat slower than most humans when at rest but, when he was running it beat fast enough for a person to die of exaustion three times over. Oriana was mandated by the Alliance to monitor him closely since he was a second generation alpha and a ticking mental timebomb. He may not have gone insane but he still was given prothean genes and they did not mix well with human, even though they are the most compatible genetically.

"I have to get them out early."

"How?"

"I...don't know." He took off his shirt and walked out to the track and started running. Oriana picked it up off the floor and walked out to the training room, she set it on a chair and watched him for a minute, he ran two laps. That was fast even for an alpha if he went too fast it could have repricutions. It reminded him of his training days...

"Murrcura, Marrurio, shit that's not it either." The poor Krogan drill instructor couldn't pronounce his italian name.

"Murcurioy? That's it. Hey Murcurioy!" He yelled.

"Yes sir!"

"Why are you running so slow? Did I give you permission to run like a fucking human!?"

"No sir!" John was out of breath it had been his first month as an alpha, he wasen't used to his big heart and had to log in extra cardio time.

"Then why are you running like a two testicled bitch!?" He could match him stride for stride, Krogan muscle mass and desity made them the second strongest sentiant species in the galaxy, well at the time they _were_ the strongest. Until the Yagh war.

"I'm still getting used to my body sir-"

"What the fuck are you? A teenage girl?" He started mocking him, "I don't understand my body, Gee wiz I hope Johnny will notice me at the big dance."

The krogan growled and screamed at the top of his lungs at John.

"SACK UP AND RUN!"

John began to pick up speed he ran faster and faster until he felt his muscles begin to give out. He let out a gasp as he fell over into the mud and couldn't get back up. The krogan drill instructor (Urdnot Lorak) bent over him and spit off to the side. He discovered human tobacco and couldn't keep chew out of his mouth ever since.

"That's what I like to see, MEDIC!"

John kept running around the track, he needed to think and this was the only way to clear his head. Until he saw Oriana standing in his way he came to an abrupt stop almost tumbling over himself.

"John, go eat something, that is an order."

"Oriana-"

"Miss Lawson or ma'am." She reminded him, she learned how to lead from the best.

"Ma'am, I-I have to get her out, I own her that much."

"I know John, I know. But you can't punish yourself for something someone else did. Now go eat." She caught a wiff of him and made a face.

"Shower first."

He chuckled and nodded his head. "Yes ma'am."

**Bradbary Prison**

**Cell block D **

**Prisoner 05-647389 Darcey, Liam**

**4:00 pm**

Liam sat on his bed looking up at the ceiling, he had been in jail once before but that was a long time ago. He was a seventeen year-old run away he remembered his mom picking up, the look she gave him. She wasen't angry she just hugged him and then took away all his stuff for a week but she didn't even look disapointed in him it was like she knew exactly what he was going through.

"Liam, don't you ever do that again, ok? I'm so glad you're safe. Also i'm taking your playstation away for a week."

He was the one in shock, he ran away after a fight he had with his step-dad. Liam was so angry that he never met his father he didn't know what to do with himself except rebel. Tom wasen't a bad guy, infact Liam felt a little sorry for how he treated him the first few years he thought he was trying to replace his dad, but all he was doing was trying to be half the man Elliot was and if he could be Liams friend that would have ment a lot to him. (Read "Mass Effect: Earths greatset heros" and you can see the kind of man Elliot Darcey was). He didn't know why he was thinking about it, he hadden't thought about his dad or Tom, even his mother in a few years.

And now he was stuck in prison for the next year, all he had was time to think, time to reflect...

He remembered growing up in california the sun, the sand and the water. His dad was from England and his mom was from Nebraska so they didn't grow up with the all the beaches or the amount of freedom that Liam had. He would stay out and sometimes not come home and that angered his mom, she wasen't much of a yeller but she would give him this look that made him melt inside. The kind of look that said "how could you?" or "Why?" and then she had one that was more along the lines of, "You have ten seconds to tell me why you should be living right now" that last one scared him. He remembered one time in particular when his friends convinced him to tag a bilbord with red spray-paint, he never regreted it.

"Liam that bilbord is blocking our sun." Said his childhood friend.

"It is, what ever shall we do?" He leaned on his sholder staring at the political bilbord put in place for the mayoral election.

"I think we should give mayor Howard a touch up. Don't you?"

He turnned his head and Liam was nodding methodically.

"Oh yeah."

He remembered giving him devil horns and a tail that was when a crime-bot caught him. The floating menace told him to put his hands up but instead young Darcey jumped on it then rode it to another roof top nearly falling off he escaped without a scratch. And since then he was always looking for the next rush of adreniline, that is until he he joined the Alliance marines he was accepted into N-school and when he reached N5 designation Jacob Ryan brought him into the ACIA as a feild agent, he worked there for five years until...

**Citidel**

**seven years prior**

He ran down a long corridor he had to reach the assassin in time or else the human councilor was dead. The Batarian councilor; Jakard who planned on starting a war with the humans using the Omegas to win the war and reclaim the Exodus cluster for the hegemony. Liam didn't count on the batarian spectre Ikare who was one of the best fighters in the spectres, he climbed a latter to a rooftop and found the assassin. A turian who was obviously a hired gun and not a radical, Liam snuck up behind him and crushed his backwards leg nearly snapping it in two. He let out a cry but he coverd his mouth and forced his head to the side, watching as the life left his eyes his bright green eyes went back and his body went limp in Liams hands. He dropped the corpse and picked up the rifle. Jakard was in the same room as the human councilor.

"Liam did you get the assasin?" Felix commed.

"Yeah, but I've got a shot at Jakard."

"Do not pull the trigger!" Felix yelled.

"Brenks moves by his comand if I kill him now he'll be forced to go on the run!"

"Liam!"

He didn't respond.

"Liam!"

He stood there with the rifle in his hands he fit the stock against his sholder and leveled the gun aiming directly at the councilor.

"Tell the others i'm sorry."

"No!"

He squeezed the trigger and felt the gun kick against his sholder while heat from the gun brushed against his face as he lowered the weapon watching the councilor fall down clutching his neck. The paramedics didn't reach him in time and he bled out on the human embassey floor.

After which Brenks decided to move without Jakards go ahead, it seemed as though he had his own agenda the entire time. Making Liams kill pointless, Brenks attacked the project alpha building in Las Vegas and the crew of the Ostrich stopped him although he did escape.

**Bradbary prison **

**cell block D**

**Prisoner 05-6378492 T'rya, Mara**

**4:08 pm**

She looked at the clock outside her room and sighed.

"Eight fucking minutes." That was all that had past after she fell asleep.

She couldn't just fall asleep and wait it out like in hyperspace. She was in this for the long haul, Mara had lost her citizenship on Thessia and now belonged to the Alliance. She and the others didn't hate Liam for taking the shot, they just wished their was another way...

**Torsal Nym**

**Two weeks ago**

"Mara, can I talk to you?" Liam knocked on her hotel room door.

She opened it and motioned at a chair, she was reading a book when he walked in and she set it on the bed side desk. He ran his hands through his dark blonde hair that she had always liked, the color not many human had he even had some facial hair that she was surprised he let grow out. When she knew him seven years ago he was ontop of the world and he was a hell of a charmer.

"Thirsty? They have a fine selection of drinks out here in ass-end of the galaxy." She poured herself a asari whiskey and offered it to him.

Liam turnned it down as he sat back in the chair at the end of the bed.

"What is it?" She asked sitting on the bed. "Because the Liam I know never rejects a drink."

He smiled softly and looked up at her as she sat down. "Those two Alliance operatives, my cusins." He paused for a moment.

Mara shook her head, _of corse they're his cusins_ she thought. Next thing he's going to tell me is that he can fly and get them back into citidel space.

"Go on."

"They offered us a way back home."

She shot up hesitantly excited she asked in disbilief. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"Liam this is amazing, we can go home! Wait, what's the catch?" She wasen't dumb by any means, she saw the look on his face and knew it ment something.

"We are being roped into a project, but we have to spend jail time first." He looked up at her.

"How long?"

"A year."

"That's not to bad." She shrugged, "Lighten up."

"You've lost your Thessian citizenship." He swallowed. " You can't go back."

Her heart sank. She sat down again and then looked back at him.

"But, that means, I can never go home i'll never see my sisters or-or my parents, Liam what..." She didn't know what to ask she wasen't one for shedding tears but a single one fell from her eyes as they watered. Liam stood up and offered a hug, she fell into his arms and just held onto him for a while. When she collected her thoughts she let go.

"Thanks." She sniffed.

"We're being roped into the new horizons project, its part of our sentence. But honestly it dosent sound like one. Ryan is a hell of a negosiator."

"Yeah..."

Her mind raced as she thought of never going home again but this time it was real. They wouldn't let her see Thessia again. Serves her right for stealing a military ship, but that didn't revoke her citizen status. It could have been her invlovment in killing a councilor.

Liam began to walk out.

"Wait." She said, stopping him in his tracks.

"When do we leave?"

"Tomarrow." He turnned around and faced her.

"Stay the night?" She asked, they had been invlolved before but not since they were on the run. He cocked his head as she walked over to him and wraped her arms around his neck.

"Are you sexually expersing your feeling towards not being able to go home and being slated for a deep space mission?"

"Yep." She said simply as she felt his hands on her waist.

He nodded his head as though he were weighing options, he brushed his lips against her light purple skin.

"I'll take that as a yes?" She smiled as he kissed her again. They moved back toward her bed, she fell back and waited as Liam pulled her pants down and she lifted off her shirt, he smirked as he intertwined their hands together and moved them back against the bed frame. She felt a cold ring around her wrist. She stopped kissing him then made a face.

"Hand cuffs? Liam what the fu-where are you going?"

He gave her a big smile and turnned off the lights.

"Sweet dreams."

"Oh-ho you son of a-"

He closed e door before she could finish. She laughed a little to herself, she had done the same thing to him eight years prior but that was to keep him from claiming her target. He was stuck in a hotel room for hours until room service found him naked tied to the bed. He always found away to ruin a nice moment.

"At least I fucked you!" She called out. "Dick."

She sighed and was thankfull that her underwear was still on. That was actually kindnees compared to what she did.

Now she was in a cell bed waiting for something she didn't even know she was waiting for. She heard a sharp rap on her cell door and she looked up.

"Chow time miss." A tray was pushed through the slot on the door.

She never had to eat off the floor before, so she picked up the tray and sat it on her lap and ate alone, although she didn't feel alone. Infact she heard Jasons voice, but he wasen't in the room.

"Mara."

"Jason?"

"Did you get food? Because I didn't and i'm kinda hungry."

"Get out of my head."

"But-"

"Out."

She felt him leave and could now finish her slop in peace.

**Bradbary Prison**

**Cell block A special containment**

**Prisoner 01-0000023 Baker, Jason**

Jason found it a little embarising that he didn't have a last name so he used Devins since they were brothers. He wasen't bothered by containment infact he figure he could use his time wisely by meditating and reaching out to his friends even if none of them wanted to talk. He sat on the floor that he spread a blanket on to make it a little more comfortable, he could see all of the gaurds and all of the prisoners at once he could feel them although they could not feel him. Jason didn't reach out to his brother because he knew him all to well, he could have opened his cell door if he wanted to. He could have walked through the door if he wanted to, but something was going to happen that would make it open, he could feel it.

The cell door opened a tall man with a suit and a poorly tied tie walked into Jasons cell, he lit a cigar and Jason snuffed out the flame.

"Please don't."

He was not surprised in fact he was oddly calm he straightened up and cleared his throat.

"I assume you know my name?"

"Liam says to never assume because it makes an ass out of U-"

"And an ass out of me. He didn't come up with that you know." He walked over and sat on Jasons bed, he bounced on it slightly as he sat.

"Mm. Comfey."

"You didn't come here to talk about beds Mr. Ryan."Jason said opening one eye and peering at him.

"No, I guess I didn't, don't you want a shirt it's a little cold-"

"I'm fine, you are intruding on my meditations so please ask what questions you may so we can go on with our day...that rymed."

Ryan smiled, he was like a child yet superior in a way that could not be explained. He had long curly blonde hair pulled back in a pony tail and tan skin, he looked like a surffer. He opened his omni-tool to record the conversation then clasped his hands together.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"Jason Baker." His eyes remained closed and he faced the cell door.

"Let me rephrase, _what_ are you?"

Jason opened his eyes still not looking at Ryan Jason held up his hand in front of his face

"I think...I think therfore...I am." He ran his hand down his face and contuinued talking before Ryan could ask what the heck was going on.

" René Descartes said that but I don't think he ment it in the literal form as I do."

"What does that mean?" Ryan asked.

"Well I think-"

"Let me tell you what I know, you _are_ energy but that's all you are no brain no heart, lungs, kidneys you have none of them. Now what do we make of that?"

Jason looked at him for the first time in their conversation. Ryan felt him, actually felt his presence in the room it was rather unsettling but he figured that Jason had to make you feel this way instead of his presence being like this at all times.

"I'm from the master relay that much I know for sure but I do not know from where, I was hoping your mission would grant me the answers that my brother and I seek."

Ryan nodded as he looked over some files he had he pulled out one marked "Devin Baker" and read it he looked at Jason then back at the documents.

"Ah yes your brother, prisoner 01-0000024. He is like you only...not like you. He can go off at any moment killing anyone within a ten mile radius but, you keep him under control-."

"Devin is not a killer."

"On the contrary he has killed a fellow classmate of his when he was at Grissom who I believe she was his girlfriend at the time, her name was Sally."

**Cell block D**

**Prisoner 05-93726**

**Felix**

**Last name- N/A **

Felix was practicing Asari martial arts in his cell while he waited for dinner. The days on Mars were longer so they recieved four square meals instead of three. He found peace in the art of Pur-nue, it was agresive yet it relied heavily on the individuals strength in mind considering it involved biotics. He was not a biotic so he used it to focus and keep his mind off of things like being in prison for one, their was a mirror facing him he thought it was strange he got a mirror they must have trusted him. He looked at himself and saw his body covered in scars, he sighed as he remembered getting them Drell have perfect memories he even remembered the way the knife was held or the direction of the bullet and the how the knathack claws felt when they burrowed into his skin.

He brought his arm in a downward arc and used the momentum to turn around and faced the door as food came through the slot. He knelt down and began eating, he didn't care what it was just that he was eating something after he finished he resumed his practice. He liked to keep a clear head, it kept the memories from flooding in they didn't bother him but sometimes they gave him headaches especially when he had nothing to focus on. He heard the cell door unlocking then turnned around, standing infront of him was a woman in dress blues. An Alliance officer, she stood in the doorway with one hand on her left hip.

"You just gonna stand there?" She hand an accent although Felix didn't know where from he knew german, english, real english, russian and asian but that was about it, the rest sounded the same to him. Hers was like english but different more sing-songy instead of angry.

"Am I leaving?" He asked.

"Yep, get dressed your heading to the moon."

He cocked his head as he pulled his shirt over it then followed her out of his cell. He saw Liam and Mara being taken out of their cells as well. He didn't understand at first until he saw Allyson she had her hair back for one and the neuro clamps were gone, they stood in a straight line until Jason and Devin were brought to them and the woman pulled out her omni-tool and read.

"Per-the request of Major John Murcurrio and Captain Ashley Williams of the MSV Earth. You are hear by ordered to carry out your sentence in service to the Alliance. Take'em away boys."

She walked away as the gaurds brought them to the hanger. They were loaded onto a shuttle and they were brought to the lunar base. They were given their old clothes and their weapons were brought in a crate with other personal effects.

"So what now?" Devin asked.

"Now we become indentured servants to our benevolent government." Liam looked out the window as they approached a feuling station.

Prison shuttles were allowed to have windows because they were in space, they didn't plan on escapes and none had ever happened. This time would be no different.

"Allyson, what happend to you."

"They gave me the surgery to remove the neruo clamps and they used a growth hormone to bring my hair back." She shrugged.

"I'm happy, how about you guys." She looked around the cabin.

Jason glanced at Devin then looked at the others. "I'm fine for now."

Mara sighed. "I have to pee."

"That's nice." Felix commented.

"Well I do. We better get to the fucking moon soon or else I'll pee myself."

Liam scooted away from her but couldn't move because it was a prison ship and they were locked in place by ankle braces.

"Please don't."

They shuttles engine hummed and they were carried away to the moon. They felt the shuttle enter the docking bay and it set them down, the doors opened an they were taken out single file. Liam was last out and he saw someone he didn't expect.

"Little bear!" His mother wrapped her arms around him and he just stood there with his hand cuffs on. Her light blonde hair was cut short just touching her sholders and she was wearing a medical officers uniform.

"Mom?"

"Little bear?" The others laughed.

"He's my little bear." She kissed his cheek, nothing like a thirty eight year-old man being man handled by his mother.

"What are you doing here?" He asked. "Wait let me guess, Ryan."

"Yep, he saw my service record aboard the Gettysburg (pre-reaper war) and my hospital transcripts of clean service. Making me the head M.D."

She frowned at his hand cuffs and then looked at the others, she actually knew Mara but she never met the others she motioned for the gaurd to uncuff them. Liam looked at the others who were conceiling laughter, until someone call for Officer on deck. There she was the great Captain Williams come to save the day, she was followed by a rather tall muscular man and Liams cusins.

"Damn, it's a Darcey family reunion." Allyson muttered.

Devin caught Maggies attention once again as they walked over to the crew of the Ostrich, or the _former_ crew of the Ostrich. Her storm grey eyes enamoured him once agian until she turnned in his direction, Jason saw him look at her and he glared at him.

Devin noticed his brothers stare. "What?"

"You know what." He said.

Ashley saw the rank on the gaurds uniform and addressed him as such.

"Corpral, uncuff my first officer." She waited as he uncuffed Liam and the others. She took a look at them all then stopped at Allyson.

"You a second gen like the Major?"

"Major huh?" She looked over at John he had the Majors insignia on his sholder.

"Yeah I'm a second gen."

"Welcome aboard." Ashley moved to Jason and Devin.

"Who are you two?"

"They're with me, uh-hi. I'm Liam Darcey your first officer."

"Darcey." She said taking his hand. She had a firm grip and looked him in the eye.

"John." She didn't look away from Liam.

"Yes ma'am?"

"Get them in Alliance uniforms will ya? The aliens too." She walked away and left the hangar.

Mara rubbed her wrists as the cuffs were removed. "Well, that was frightening."

Caroline Darcey( now Caroline Rove) walked with them with her omni-tool out scanning them as they walked to the barracks.

"Well, your vitals are fine Felix i'd like to apologize in adavnce the Drell anatomy isn't something I know well."

"That's fine Doc."

She checked Allyson and shrugged. "Yep, everythings off the charts."

Allyson smile, "So nothing out of the ordinary?"

"Not for you hon."

Ryan breifed her on Jason and Devin so she passed them. She gave Mara a clean bill of health as well then she got to Liam.

"Your fine but you look hungry, you should eat something."

"Mom, i'm not hungry." He sighed.

They reached the barracks and she followed them in and continued mothering Liam. They all got into individual stalls to get dressed and ready themselves, the Alliance put something in their stalls that they each might have wanted.

"Mom, i'm fine. Could you please let me change?"

"I haven't seen you in seven years, so i'm going to mother you. Superior officer or not you're still my child and you're not first officer yet." She reminded him.

He sighed as he got dressed, he decided not to shave Liam kind of liked his facial hair he had his hair trimmed by one of the servicemen attending to them. Mara slipped the Alliance uniform on and looked in the mirror, she sighed and realized she never applied facial markings like some asari and decided to keep that tradition for herself. Felix felt ok in the uniform his skin was more blue and his neck area orange instead of red, he had percings on his left ear and decided to keep them. He wasen't technically military even if he wore the uniform. Devin had his hair cut away from his sholders and neck but didn't get the full military cut, he looked in the mirror and looked through some shelves and foud hair dye.

He figured it was time for a new look. Jason had his hair buzzed off into except for a little tuff of hair on top, he liked it and he also liked the uniform it gave him a sense of belonging. Allyson tied her hair into a loose bun and pinned her silver liutenents bar onto her uniform. She felt pretty good and that was saying a lot, she had her life back for the most part. Liam walked out of his stall and his mother stood thier with a small case.

"This is your first officers badge." She said, she opened the case and looked at it.

Liam sighed and looked at her. "You can pin it on."

She smiled amd walked over to him with the small silver Alliance symbol and she pinned it on his sholder. She stepped back and saluted him.

"Officer on deck!" Called one of the gaurds.

Liam looked around but didn't see Captain Williams. He saw Allyson, Mara, Felix and Devin showed Jason what to do. They all stood at attention, he realized they were saluting him he nodded at them.

"At ease."

Devins hair went from jet black to a bright blonde, he didn't have a rank nor did Jason. He saw Allyson walk away with John and Devin went with the twins to the mess hall followed by Jason. Felix left to look for a training room and His mother had to return to the med lab. It was Just Liam and Mara.

"So, Commander Darcey." She said walking up to him.

"Has a nice ring to it, sounds distinguished, sexual even. Mostly sexual." He nodded confirming it like the statement was fact.

She laughed as she reached out to him."Don't over do it."

She leaned forward and kissed his lower lip. Liam smiled as he looked into her light blue eyes. Although she had a synister look on her face Liam cocked his head to the side.

"What?"

She leaned her mouth close to his ear and whispered. "I was just thinking what it would be like if a human male was hit in the testicles."

"Wait-ooff!"

Mara raised her knee up hard into his groin forcing Liam to find a seat.

"See you tomarrow commander, sweet dreams." She left the room.

"That was short lived." The commander stood up and slowly made his way to the door.


	5. Ghouls & gals

**Two months later**

**Turian wing Aquila**

**En route to luna**

**ETA:ten minutes**

**Sylas "Grim" Rapax**

Ever since he was born Sylas dreamed of piloting a spaceship and traveling through the stars so you could say being in a turian fighter squadron is living the dream. He was extrodinarily talented behind the controls of a turian fighter, he was offered to fly bigger ships but he liked his good old fashoin fighter. They flew in formation ahead of a turian frigate that was escorting the SSV Olympous Mons the Olympous-class leader in the Alliance military which was slated to bring the entire crew of the Earth. The turian frigate (Spirit of the 79th) was also bringing the four Krogan that were allowed on the exploration class vessel. One was a shaman to represent the krogan as a species and the others were soldier (which is rather general when disscussing krogan) Urdnot Grunt, Nakmor Viole, Jurdon Krex. After the reaper war the krogan clans were unified under Urdnot Wrex the krogan clan-name became more like turian face markings while they all belonged together the krogan take great pride being from their clans.

The shamans separated themselves from krogan society and are apart of the unofficail shaman clan which govers itself on most issues however Urdnot Wrex leads the krogan in battle and in title, however Tuchunka is ran by the Clan House Parlament in which every fromer clan leader represent their clan and their clans territory. The shaman aboard the Spirit of the 79th was (by request of the clan house parlament) was a unofiliated female shaman named Kerren. She was neutral and was knowlegeble about krogan history and culture so she was a top canidate as well as the other krogan.

But lets not get ahead of ourselves, Sylas "Grim" Rapax got his nick-name from his squad mates, he unlike many individuals was born a preditor plain a simple. He did a few tours in the outer rim and gained a lengendary fourty-seven fighter craft kills ranging from batarian to human even vorcha fighters, pirates come in all shapes and sizes. A friend off his, a human pilot he met in the outer rim called him the grim reaper because he said he wasen't just a killer he was a soul collecter and the greatest killer of all death. It stuck because his squad mates took to calling him the Grim Rapax after his thirtith kill the last ten were made a few weeks after.

Sylas was a little hurt to be assigned to the Earth, he was being tasked with shuttle duty as well as fighter pilot. Although he was eagar to get a chance to see the universe he wished it would have been under the turian banner, the humans weren't all bad but their blood ran hot and they were unpredictable especially to aliens. Sylas may be friends with some humans but he still didn't understand them much nor did he understand why they were so divided in all aspects of life, name it; religion, gender, ideaology, physical apperance, even skin color. That last one made obsolutely no sense to Sylas, but to humans it was weird that turians didn't trust barefaces the people who didn't trust other the most couldn't understand the value of honor as it was, honor is not flexible nor is it a status symbol, way of life or state of mind.

Honor was a reputation, a reputation that was earned not given it ment you had integrity and would sacrifice youself for another even if it was your life it ment putting your petty problems asdie and realizing your strengths as well as your weaknesses, no turian ever complained about being dealt a bad hand in life, instead they made something of themselves if they were clerks they were going to be the best damn clerk you'd ever meet. While state service was manditory at age 15 through 30 not all turians were fit for combat value was placed on all jobs in the military no matter how small. The military taught them honor, human sociologists that have had the privalage to study on Palaven noticed that the tuians that don't serve in the military or take their roles seriously tend to fail in turian society those turians take on characteristicts of other races.

Rapax was however exited to see Earth (the planet) they were having a mini-send off for the crew seeing as how they wont be back home until 2229. He had never been to Earth, he had heard good things from his turian friends who lived there, some species who faught on other planets during the reaper war decided to stay and raise their families. A lot of turians helped rebuild Earth and a few even stayed, war has a way of changing perspective people realized how pety the grudge some held over the first contact war, heck some still argued it wasen't even a real war.

They were approaching the Earths moon and his squadron leaders voice came over the communnication channel.

"We have clearance to land, all wings prep for landing. All wings report in."

"Aquila 0-2, reporting." Viso "trust-fund" Maxeas, a good wing and by the hierarchys standards a good turian. He came from a military family and to his fathers slight disapointment he became a pilot. The Maxeas family patriarch General Maxeas was to be stationed on the Palaven he wished for his son to join the marines but his apptitudes showed that he'd be a better pilot and a piolt he is. They call him trust-fund because his parents are military higher-ups and he was just a pilot.

"Aquila 0-3, reporting." Hebesc "The Kid" Bartus reported in, he was nothing special except he was 18 and one of the youngest fighter pilots in the hierarchy.

"Aquila 0-4" Sylas "Grim" Rapax.

And finally, "Aquila 0-5, reporting." Desious "Outlaw" Hilion, a good wing except when he was off duty, he loved his drink and as long as it didn't affect him in the seat it didn't matter. But he was a convicted crimminal on three colonies, he had a temper but again it didn't affect him when he was flying so his team mates just looked out for him, in the hierarchy a turian could do just about anything as long as it didn't affect others.

But lets not forget 0-1 Markus "Ghoul" Gravis, the leader of Aquila wing, he watched over his men like a spirit of the fleet. His nick-name was with him before he lead Aquilla wing and he never mentioned what it ment and aquila wing never asked.

"Hey Grim, you exicted about seeing Earth?" Asked Kid, he could be nosey at times but he was just curious, and Rapax was reminded of the old human saying that curiosity killed the cat.

"And why would I be exicted about Earth?" He lazily replied.

"Uh, you know...Nyra."

Ghoul stepped in before Sylas could retort. "Stow it Kid, no more talking till we reach luna."

A ping came up on Ghouls' console he pressed the button to accept the transmission.

"Aquila wing, this is Alliance comm tower delta-0, the ships are leaving for Earth right now. Looks like you guys were late to the party."

Gravis sighed then commed back. "Do we have permission to land on Earth?"

He wait for a moment until the Alliance pinged back. "Yes sir, were sending you docking codes now, proceed to docking bay E-7, welcome to Earth, Delta-0 out."

"Thank you, Aquila 0-1 out."

"Spirit of the 79th this is Aquila 0-1, do you have confirmation to land?"

"Yes we do, docking bay E-10."

The captain of the Spirit of the 79th sent out a quick messege to everyone.

"When we land we have to report to Captian Williams, she's incharge of the operation. And to all passenger please be on your best behavior, remeber we are guests on Earth and the last thing we need is more human-turian animosity, Tobesk out."

They grouped up with the ships bringing the crew to Earth and followed them to the docking gate E, aquila wing landed and was surprisingly greeted by non-military personel. As Rapax stepped out of his fighter he removed his helmet and streched, then looked around at the others as they hopped out.

The docking bay was located in Honolulu Hawaii, a port city for the Alliance on the island of Oahu. The docking bay was suported over the water, it was an open hanger that looked over the pacific. Sylas turnned around to see a man followed by women and two gaurds, some of the women were turian. The humans always had a flare for the dramatic when it came to send offs, Rapax was hoping for a simple and short cerimony and then explore the island of Oahu for a little while before he would have to spend an entire five years on a space vessel.

"Welcome to Oahu gentlmen, welcome!"

The women put wreaths of flowers over them and the turian piolts just looked at each other. Syals had been to human colonies before and he never got this welcome, they usually just waved and pretended that the turians weren't there. But these human put flowers on them and brought them to a check-in center that had fruity dextro drinks for them. He wasen't complaining he just had never met a human that was willing to show hospitality to another race. They didn't know him, shit he could have been Saren Arcturius and they still would have given him flowers and a fruity drink.

"Hey Kid, you ever have a fruity dextro drink?" Asked Trust-fund.

He looked at the drink then took a whiff of it. "I think it's quarian, and i've never had a drink." He took another sip.

Gravis walked over to the "welcoming comitee" this was noce and all but they were late to a party and it seemed the krogan knew where to go.

"Let us through human, I don't want your flowers."

"Grunt, it is a sign of peace." The shaman pulled him close to speak into his ear.

"So take the fucking flowers."

Urdnot Grunt waited as the human woman put flowers over his head. He groweld scaring her off.

"Heh,heh-ow."

The shaman kicked him in his krogan shin, he and r others followed an Alliance executive to a transport shuttle and got on.

Rapax watched as it took off and he tapped Gravis' sholder. "Ghoul, shouldn't we be on that shuttle?"

He watched it then grabbed the man who brought them to the bar area and pointed at the shuttle area.

"Shouldn't we be on that?"

"No, you're getting the next one." He said as he took the glass from Gravis.

"Which is right over there, enjoy your stay gentlmen!"

He waved by as aquila wing hopped onto a shuttle and were taken to antoher side of the island. They were all tired from the trip and really just wNted to rest, they were still in flight suits and Grim hadden't gotten time to calabrate his ships guns.

Kid looked around at the others he fiddled around as he spoke. "Hey guys, you think...I don't know...you think-"

Trust-fund interupted tired of him stumbling over his words. "Spill it Kid."

"You think their will be any good looking girls on this ship?"

"Spirits Kid," Outlaw shook his head. "We're going on an interstellar mission to explore the unexplored and you want some fringe?"

The others laughed as Kids mandibles fluttered, it was the turian equivalant to blushing since their blood was blue it was hard to see under their rough skin.

"Aw comon Grims' girl is on Earth-"

"Kid, shut. Up." Grim warnned, Nyra was his ex-wife she also claimed full custody of their child, he rarely saw his little girl she turnned twelve three weeks ago and he didn't get so much as a text from them.

"She's my ex."

"Oh. Sorry Sylas I thought-"

"It's fine just...stop talking."

Kid rested his head back against the shuttle as they landed. The human sure knew how to party, their was fire dancing and what was called a "Big kauna send off" writen on a banner. It was pretty weird to Sylas, but his first thought was seeing his child before he left for five years it would be nice however Nyra was angry that he was always away, he missed so much of Serahs life and now he was going to miss another five birthdays. Nyra would deny him visitation a lot because he never came to Earth when _she_ said he could. All because he didn't "call ahead" well he did, and he has but she never picked up the phone or answer her omni-tool.

He had to shake a few hands and eventually found time to call, Grim had to get away from the party and sat down on the beach watching as the waves rolled in and out of shore. He waited as it rang, a little turian girl picked up the call to Sylas' surprise.

"Who is it?" She asked.

"Serah? It's daddy." He said excitedly.

"Dad?"

"Yeah, how are you?"

"Good. How's the army?"

He chuckled and answered. "It's going good, I'm in this place called Hawaii. You should see it their's this once human who spit fire, it was wild."

"Dad that's Hawaiian culture, they do that there." She said matter-of-factly.

"Oh excuse me miss human expert. So how's mom and everyone." He had to ask, he had to.

"Oh she and Jerry are in the aother room watching vids."

Sylas swallowed at the mention of the other man. "Oh...who's Jerry."

"He's moms boyfriend." It didn't mean much to Serah, her parents had been split since she was five so when they were with other people it didn't matter to her. But Grim was never with anyone else he never had time since he was in the outer rim so much. Being as talented as he was behind the controls of a turian wing fighter craft, Aquila wing was in high demand.

"Sounds fun, hey is-"

"Sylas." It was Nyras voice.

"Hey...Nyra."

"You really should have-"

"Called ahead I know." He curse under his breath and kicked the sand in anger.

"Still in the outer rim?" She asked.

"No actually I was hoping you would have pick up first, I'm on Earth for today and I'm leaving on wensday."

"Wensday? that's in two days." She sighed.

"What? Spirits Nyra I'm going on a five year tour into uncharted space let me see my fucking daughter...please."

"Five ye-" She began to exclaim

"Nyra, please I don't care if you're there shit it can be lunch or-or breakfast I don't care just, let me see her."

He was sitting in the sand and almost got on his knees as if it would have done anything. He didn't care Sylas wasen't the best father and he knew it, most turian dads were pretty shitty but he was never even around. Some days he wished he joined c-sec it might have even saved his marrige but he loved, absolutely loved flying a fighter. Their was nothing like it except being a dad with reposibilites halfway across the galaxy that he really should have been attending to. In turian society he was practically a martyer for sacrificing his time for the military instead of his family, but in other societies he was a neglective father.

"Fine, fine...you can pick her up from school tomarrow you _can_ do that right?" She asked.

Sylas punched the air in victory and replied. "Yeah, I can be in Massachusets in a few hours I just have to get shore leave and I'll leave tonight."

"Ok, but call me if you can't make it." She reminded.

"Ok I will if I can't but i'm sure I can. Tell her she'll see me tomarrow."

"Tell her yourself." She handed the comlink over to Serah and her voice came up again.

"Hey dad."

"Hey Serah i'm gonna pick you up from school tomarrow how does that sound?"

"Do you have a car?" Was lf course the first thing out of her mouth.

"Well no."

"Then how are you goning to get here?"

"Hey, I don't know if you know but your dad flys planes for a living so I'm gonna be there don't you worry how."

"Ok dad...well I've got to go mom just made dinner so bye."

"W-wait hold on, I love you."

"Love you to dad." She said reluctantly.

"Ok go eat."

She hung up and that left Sylas on a beach, alone.

**Jean Dorian K7 super-soldier**

**Oahu Hawaii**

**7:00 pm**

Jean was from Lyon France where he and his now deseased brother were from. After his death in Juarez on a operation gone wrong he didn't have much to celebrate these days aside from being a PMC gone military then super-soldier. C'est la vie is what he told himslef to help him sleep better, drinking helped too but he couldn't get drunk with the super soldier gene in him. Jack Shultz one of his long-time friends rested a hand on his sholder and raised a glass.

"To Michele."

"Santé." He raised his glass with Jacks.

Jack downed his drink and looked around."You should find a girl tonight, a woman would make you feel, better."

"A woman would not bring my brother back." Jean said defeated.

Jack snapped his fingers getting his friends attention. "He's not coming back, but he is with you. Just know that."

Jean sighed, he lifted his head and thanked his friend and watched as the others were enjoying the festivities. He figured that this would be his last chance and set his glass down and looked to Jack.

"Fuck it I can't get wasted so lets find some girls to dance with."

"Good because I was thinking I'd try for her." He pointed across the room to a girl with dark brown hair and storm grey eyes that Jean could see from across the room as people walked infront of him, each time someone walked infront of him he tried to get a better look at her. She caught his eye and smiled, he had to meet her. He pushed Jack out of the way and walked toward her.

"Jean I said I was...what ever, you're lucky you're brother died." He mumbled the last part and found himself at the bar.

Jean walked through the crowd and treid not to stare he grabbed a drink off a table as he past it and found another as he reached her. She had a warm accent from the southern american area like Texas but not Luisiana, it was soft and inviting.

"Hello." Oh crap. He saw the N7 emblem on her hoodie and imediatly regreted his desision but he had the drink now, no turning back.

"Jean Dorian."

"Oh, français?" She asked intruiged by his accent.

"Oui."

"Well I hope you speak english because that's how far my french goes." She laughed, noticing the two drinks in his hand she took one of them and sipped it. Nodding her head she offered him a seat at her table.

"You have good taste Jean, please sit."

He did so and noticed the two other guys and another woman sitting at her table. One of them looked like her enough for him to assume that he was her boyfriend but he sat on the other side of the table, so Jean guessed a team mate or possibly a brother. The other man was more boy than man, he had bright blonde hair that was brushed to the side and the woman was unmistakably Allyson Parish his superior, he nodded in Allysons direction.

"Sir."

"Dorian." She replied.

The girl he walked the room for decided to introduced herself. "My name is Margret but everyone calls me Maggie."

"Well hello Maggie, would you like to dance?" He asked.

"Straight to the point aren't you Jean?" She downed her drink then looked across the table at her brother who rolled his eyes and shrugged.

"I would love to." She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the dance floor.

He couldn't belive how smoothly things were going, the music was good enough to dance to so he was able to enjoy it as they danced together. He saw a turian talking to the captain and was curious but uninterested. Maggie so far was one of a kind she moved well for a soldier, she leaned on him slightly he was surprised how calm she was for an N7 although his previous encounters with the Alliance hadn't been so...nice. PMCs and military didn't get along much but the Alliance rarely used them so they were usually retricted to Earth working as loop-holes for other governments. The media didn't care if a PMC was fighting in Mexico or Africa, they even contained a situation in Detroit once and Jean didn't remember seeing one news story on the event.

They danced for a few songs and they walked to the bar and orders a few drinks. Maggie pointed at who he had correctly guessed as her brother. The tender set their drinks down infront of them as they began to talk.

"Don't mind him he hates all the men I talk to." She said pulling an olive off a toothpick.

"A little protective is he?"

"Eh, he is a barely functioning sociopath." She shrugged.

Jean chuckled. "Nothing like a barely functioning sociopath on a starship." He smiled.

Maggie laugh at that even though she felt bad for Tyler, he cluld be difficult at times but he was her big brother. She'd follow him to the edge of the galaxy if it made him happy, she once thought that it was her fault he was the way he is. She like the rest of her family once thought that maybe they didn't love him enough or pay him enough attention but sometimes people are just people, you can't change who they are. But you can accept them and make sure they don't feel alone, Maggie worried that if she ever left Ty he would loose what little sanity he had left.

"No, he's a good brother." She half defended.

"A scary man isn't he? Christ I'm K7 and I can't instill fear like that."

She almost choked on her drink laughing. "Yeah he-wait K7 like a super soldier K7?"

"You know of us?" He smiled.

She nodded. "Of course, you're my competion." She ordered another drink as did Jean, he could go all night but she wouldn't and the last thing he needed was brother dearest thinking he was liquoring up his sister.

"So Maggie have you been to Hawaii before?"

She shook her head, "Nope."

"Me neither, I heard the beaches here are nice, and their's one right over there. Calling our name..."

He tried not to sound creepy but to a person who had a bit of a buzz he must have sounded like shakespear. She looked around for a moment then agreed, again she followed him out to the beach and walked across the sand. She brushed her beautiful hair out of her face as the wind picked up.

"K7, that means you were a private contractor." She pointed out.

"I was, but the alliance offered me a good deal."

"You mean an offer you couldn't refuse." She said in a strange voice as she lightly scratched her face.

Jean shrugged. "I don't get it." He admitted.

"You've never seen Godfather?" Her grey eyes widened in surprise.

Jean shook his head "No."

"Not even the 2145 remake?"

He shook his head. She pushed him and told him what he was missing. Then he asked he if she had seen the Justice league movies that came out in the 2020s.

"Nuh-uh those are for geeks." She said.

"Well honestly I don't like them either but my brother loved superman so I had to go see them." He smiled at the memory.

"Oh you have a brother too?"

"Had..."

Maggie made an exagerated frown. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine, he died two years ago."

They were silent after that, Maggie looked up at the stars and pointed at the barely visible lunar structer they had been on just a few hours ago.

"I'm gonna miss that." She said. "Looking up at the moon and the stars. At home."

Jean nodded his head. "Yeah but who knows we might find a new home."

She looked at him and lingered for a while, Jeam leaned closer to her and she leaned closer to him. He could smell her soap it was citrusy and sweet smelling, her grey eyes caught his attention again her smile was so inviting and playfull. Then Maggie pushed him down, only an N7 could overtake a K like that, Jean fell onto the sand and she plopped down next to him.

"Isn't this a better veiw?" She said looking and pointing at the stars.

Jean glanced at her then back at the sky after he situatted himself on the sandy beach.

"Much."

**Mara T'rya**

**Alliance send off party**

Mara was sitting at a table with Liam, Jason and some servicemen who were trying to get to know first officer Darcey. Usually he the crew goes to the first officer before they go to the captain if faced with a problem. Liam, who was uesd to working alone or in small teams found the job tasking on some days but most of the time it was just paper work and hanging around with Felix. The service men left the table and saluted before they walked away leaving Mara, Jason and Liam alone.

"You seem to be settling into your new role quite nicely." Jason comented.

"Yeah I guess, between this or that prison." He said kicking back a drink.

They had sort of gone their separate ways, Mara was a specialist and theirfore a valuble asset as was Felix who was also good at weapon and armor modifications so he worked in the aromories and training rooms. Devin and Jason weren't really apart of the Alliance nor did they have actual combat training until three days ago when they completed basic training, now they take part in advanced training courses ran by former Grissom Academy headmaster Jennifer Naught. Liam was being beckoned by captain Williams and set his drink on the table, he looked at his friends then put on a false smile.

"Duty calls."

"Tone it down a little." Mara commented on his fake expression.

"You think so?"

"Well maybe you should try being sincear, engineer Dennings said people like it when you mean what you say." Jason added.

Mara and Liam sighed as he stood up and left the table. Mara looked over to Jason and shook her head.

"Sincear? You've learned nothing." She looked off in the other direction before he could furrow his brow at her.

"And you need to stop taking advice from Dennings, she just trying to get in your pants."

Jason had a look of disconcern. "Yes, I am aware of engineer Dennings...advances."

Jason had grown up with almost no human contact no mother, no father he wasen't nessisarily human so he didn't need affection. He unlike Devin had "evolved" without developing sexual attraction to any gender. Which made his situation with Mckenna Dennings a bit akward, he never had a woman show intrest in him before.

He shook his head. "Isn't it a little unprofessional?"

Mara smiled as she turned her head to look around, she had been to Earth twice both of them work related. She was looking at the people she'd be spending five years with; for a four hundred sixty three year-old matron that wasen't a long time but for some of the others especially the Salarians. This was a large part of their lives some of them have children, wives; familes. They were the best that humanity had to offer and they were still fuck ups they drank, they lust after each other. She spotted Nora Shepard sitting with a few of her engineering friends and a Salarian she kept her sholders away from the table drinking with both hands and smiling at others jokes but making none of her own. And some are just plain akward she thought. Mara reached for a drink but her hand was stopped turnning to see who it was she sighed and then downed her drink as he let go.

Agent Ryan sat down at her table and gave Jason a look that told him to leave. He sat up and left without a sound then pull a cigarette out of his suit jacket and offered one to Mara. She declined and waited for him to speak.

"What do you want this time Jacob?" She asked.

"Not much, I came to give you these." He slide a small jewlery box over to her and waited.

She had a look of curiosity as she opened it. "Oh Jacob." She looked up to him and small smile perked up around her cheeks.

"I've always wanted my own dog-tags." She pulled them out and read them;

**T'RYA, MARA, CPL.**

**BLOOD TYPE, AA-(ASARI)**

**ARMALI, THESSIA**

**RELIGION N/A**

Their were two of them both had the same information, she was surprised at the rank, they actually accepted her into the Alliance military. She put them around her neck nodded to the bar.

"Thirsty?"

He puffed smoke and smiled. "Why yes corpral I am."

They both stood up and walked over to the bar. For the rest of the night the crew of the Earth found that their last night planet side for the next five years was arguably the best, they left for the citidel in another day to finally board the exploration vessel Earth.


	6. Good afternoon Earth

Sylas never planned on being a father so early in his life so by the time Serah was born he had been dispatched to the outer rim, he met her when she was three. He wished he could be a better parent someone who's always there, but he feared that would never happen especially with the military sending him away again. Although she seemed to like him even though he wasen't around much. Serah liked the idea of having a real dad instead of her mothers human boyfriend, Jerry wasent a bad guy but a young turian child would much rather be raised by their own kind. Rapax was bringing her home after he took her out to lunch he wished he could stay, maybe even get back with Nyra but that was wishfull thinking at its best.

He looked over at his daughter watching as she looked out the window at the passing cars the ride was quiet. What could he say, "See ya in the next five years kid!" She would be seventeen and he'd be thirty two. He didn't know what to say he barely knew what to do except drop her off when they reached her house her opened the door for her and they walked up to her mothers door. Sylas knelt down to her eye level and spoke to her, his husky turian voice wained as he spoke.

"Serah, I'm sorry I'm never around. I really am I wish I could stay an be the father that you need but tomarrow I'll be leaving for a while and I hope that when I come back I can still see you." He tried to sound gentle but turians voices were anything but.

She looked down at the ground and went inside without saying a word as her mother appeared at the door.

He tried to call out to her before being cut off, "S-" Nyra appeared at the door. Or she might have been their the whole time and he hadden't noticed.

"Sylas, so off to fight another war?" She folded her arms and propped herself against the door frame looking disapointed as usual.

"Nyra it's not like that-"

"Bullshit Syas, why-why do you have to leave, again? Sylas, the military ruined our marriage because you had to off and be "Grim" instead of husband or father. I can't Serah can't have someone like you who just isn't around when you're supose to be.

"Nyra, I'm sorry turian tradtion dosen't agree with yours but that guy?"

"Wow." She raised her eyebrows and shook her head.

"Who I'm with is none of your buisness."

"Can't blame me for caring can you? About who my–_our_ child is being raised by?"

"Does it matter? You're _not_ here, you don't get to make that desicion."

Sylas almost lashed out but he kept calm as he heard Serah coming back down the stairs.

"Dad, here." She approached him with a necklace that had a small circular disk attached to it.

"The humans call it a lockit, see that's me."

He opened it and saw a picture of her inside, Sylas was instantly disarmed and all his aggression melted away as he knelt down and accepted her gift. He smiled and hugged his daughter, Nyra looked away as they did. Rapax put it around his neck and thanked her again.

"Serah this is-thank you." He smiled again.

"You're welcome, now you should go you don't want to be late on your first day."

He choked up a little as he laughed. "Yeah you're right, I'll see you when I get back ok?"

"Ok, bye."

"I love you." He called out as she began to walk away, she turned around and waved.

"Love you too!"

He looked at Nyra one last time before turning around and getting in the sky car and flying off he could see Serah waving as he left. He felt a tear fall down his face as he flew to the base. He wouldn't see Serah for the next Five years. He would have to coap with being a bad father the choice between duty and family blurred lines for him, turian men were typically poor fathers because of this. Usually turian women understood this but Nyra was raised post-reaper war which changed the galaxys outlook on how they perceeved themselves, Nyra was born on Earth and raised on Earth so she wasen't familar with the traditional turian code of honor.

Duty above all else.

The job of a turian father is to teach their children how to be productive adults. And that is how he is failing Serah didn't matter male or female they all served together they all had the same respect for each other. However this new wave of "individualistic turians" was troubling for the traditionalists like Sylas. The docking bay for Aquila wing was in Hawaii it would be an hour before he got back there, he set his skycar to auto and tilted the seat back, closed his eyes and fell asleep to the hum of the engine.

**Three days later**

**Citidel Docks**

**MSV Earth**

**One week before send off**

**Captain Ashley Williams**

**12:00 pm**

Whoa, that was the first thing that came to mind When Ashley reached the veiw deck of the citidel docking bay they had built for the exploration ships. It was beautifull, a little smaller than a dreadnaught but much bigger than the average Alliance frigate. The contours were smooth and sharp at the same time making it agile yet it would be very useful in a standard space fight. It had Alliance blue painted on the sides and "Earth" was printed in large letters on boths sides as well, next to the name was a two dimentional image of the Earth itself. It looked like a Simple ship yet she new that the eezo core must have been bigger than the Normadys not to mention the state-of-the-art technology that was used to build these things. Their was a port and starbord sliding door that led into the ships docking bay, only carriers had docking bays like that.

The armor was a complete redesign by solaris armory the guns were big enough and the ship itself was agile enough to be possibly the deadliest ship apart of the Alliance. All Williams wanted to do was set foot on the bridge imediately, Sandra White along with Jacob Ryan and a few Alliance admirals were going to acompany her when Ashley finally did set foot on the ship. She turnned to to Ryan who was waiting for her at the elevator, the admirals were waiting for her and Ryan at the dock.

"Sorry I-I just can't take my eyes off of her."

She turnned back to the ship and stared in awe of _her_ ship, that was the best part. It was hers The MSV Earth belonged to Captain Ashley Williams not the brass just her. Hell, what'll they do if she even denied an order, send the fleet? In dark space she was _the fleet_. But she knew she would have to refrain from such thoughts all that power could certainly go to ones head, no she was going to run her ship right just like she did on the Normady for a few years only difference was now she would have to solve most of her problems on her own, Liam was a good guy but he was headstrong and extremely impusive if he was infront of a locked door her would think of all the possible ways to open said door (And know exactly how to do all of those things) but then choose they way her perfers regardless if the key was a foot behind him. If she said jump he'd do just that, but he'd never ask how high and he'd never ask where. He does things his way because his way has gotten him and his friends this far, to be honest his way wasen't really a bad way he just needed to learn that Ashleys way was tougher, more stuborn and typically had a bigger gun.

"Let's go, the ship wont go anywhere when we're on the elevator." He smiled a she reluctantly parted from the veiw deck and entered the elevator.

When the elevator doors parted Ashley was imediately greated by Liam who handed her a data pad and walked with her and Ryan as they apprached the Earths loading ramp that the higher ups were waiting on.

"Captian." He acknowledged.

"XO Darcey early?" She turnned to Ryan who nodded with a sense of pride in his own man.

"Yes ma'am." She thought he was a little agitated by the remark so she continued walking.

"I hope you can walk and talk at the same time otherwise it'll be a short trip."

"I majored in walking and got bachelors in talking." He winked at Ryan who commented.

"Some would say it's the other way around."

Ashley looked at the data pad he handed her and saw that it was already on a menu that had a catagorized list that was separated by deck.

**-CIC/war room**

**-Engineering**

**-Crew Deck**

**-Flight deck**

**-Cargo hold**

**-Sub decks/tweens**

She backed out of the manifest menu and saw the other applications displayed on screen. There was crew dosiers, messeges, an app that's purpose was to create official documents like mission reports and official military corispondence that already had her information keyed in. It also had a speed dial for each officer on the ship as well as emergency keys (Like override codes) that could be transffered to her omni-tool. It even had a few time-passing games on it that came equipt with a timer on each one (she could only play for thirty minutes every twelve hours).

Liam continued talking as they walked to the ship.

"The ship is pretty much ready with Gibbs finally installed-"

"Excuse me?" Ashley interupted, "Who or what is Gibbs?"

Liam stopped and shook his head like he forgot something, he apologized and began to explane.

"Gibbs is the ships A.I. Captain, He-it was installed a month ago by one of the geth technicians-"

"I'm sorry commander Darcey but did you just say-"

"Captian, just know and trust that what i'm telling you isnt bullshit and we'll get along just fine."

She nodded and they walked up the loading ramp that led to a massive cargo hold/armory where crewmen were making sure everything had a place and was was stowed away properly. She shook hands with the admirals and they walked the ship, when they reached the crew deck she bumped into a man with a clean cut shaven head of dark hair and grey eyes. He only looked back to see if she was important enough to apologize to.

"Sorry Captain."

"It's fine soldier." She didn't see a rank but she noticed the N7 on his chest and glanced at his striking grey eyes, they were empty yet they had a dark essence about them that haunted her, however she continued walking on with the admirals without giving it much thought.

And then she got to the best part, the only thing separating her and the bridge was a elevator door and a small set of stairs that led to the CIC, It resembled the Normadys but only slight. The general shape was consitant but it was larger and in the center was a circular hub that was consitant with most war rooms. However their was a platform that sat sat just a few feet above it all, nick-named "The perch" by Normandy crew members and the turian navy, since it was a turian disign only the Normandy crew and the turian military were familiar with the "Captains perch". She walked up the three steps that led to the top as she rested her hands on the railing that surounded the front of the perch she looked around the CIC and whispered to herself.

"All hands, full speed ahead." A smile, crept across her face.

"What was that?" Liam asked.

When she turnned around Ashely saw that her XO was waiting at the base of the perch. Her left hand kept on the railing as she walked down the steps.

"I said with all the money put into this thing, the Alliance is still to cheep to give me a damn chair!" She looked at the officers as they walked back to her.

"I take it you like the ship?" Said Admiral Horn, he had a smirk on his face as he looked around the ship.

She nodded her head looking around taking the ship in again. "It'll do just fine sir."

"Are you sure? Because we can still get the chair."

"Really?"

"No."

He walked with the others excluding Ryan and White, down the steps to the elevator he had a few parting words as the doors closed on him.

"A word of the wise; don't fuck up."

"I'll try and remember that sir." Ashley gave him and the other admirals a salute and they returned it as the doors shut.

Ashley turnned to White and Ryan. "Why are you still here?"

Sandra walked over to the hub and brought up a vid screen image of the engineer deck. Ashely folded her arms and looked to Ryan who just shrugged they both followed Sandra to the hub and waited as she swiped a few keys.

"Cheif Daniels." She adressed.

"Yes Ms. White?"

Chief engineer Gabriela Daniels was a genius when it came to engines and all things technical, she had experiance with the SR2 making her a top canidate for the Earth.

"Is Gibbs ready?"

Ashley chimed in. "I thought he was already installed a month ago." She looked over to Liam.

"If you had let me finish Captian then you would have known that while the AI Gibbs was installed the programers as well as the technical engineers were still wroking dilligently to perfect our AI."

Liam probubly couldn't say anything without a hint of sarcasim and a condisending tone but she did interrupt him so Williams just ignored his remark and turned back to Daniels.

"How long till it'll be operational?" Ms. White asked.

Daniels shrugged and looked to her left. "You should ask the one who made him."

She stepped off screen and a Geth stepped in the spotlight shining in the camera.

"Engineer Quib vas Rannoch reporting captain."

"Quib?" Ashely responed in mild conisention.

"Yes captain?" He said in his droney voice.

"No that wasent a- never mind."

He tilted his head in confusion as Ashley got to the point.

"Is the ships A.I. ready?"

"Yes."

"Can you please activate it?"

"_Him_, he has a fully actualized personality that was developed by the geth while under supervision by the creators. And right away captain."

"Thank you."

The vid screen shut down and Ashley turnned to Ryan who along with Liam seemed quite amused.

"A geth, really?"

Ryan shrugged, "He's been serving on a quarian ship since the reaper war and knows more about A.I. technology than anyone."

"What if he turns?"

"Only the reapers could make a geth turn, that and self preservation. Now that they're each an individual with their own personality it'll be easier to catch them if they are malfunctioning. Besides he'd tell you if he was, they programed the three laws into themselves."

Ashley took some comfortn in that but she still was a veteran. And in her day the geth were the bad guys, plain and simple. But she'd get use to it as long as this "Quib" did his job and didn't mess up. His geth voice came back over the intercom.

"Activating AI in three...two...one."

All the lights on the ship faded off for a moment and Quibs' voice came back over the intercom.

"Perfectly normal. Nothing to worry about. Everyone please stay calm."

"Mr. Quib, how long is this going to take?" That's how you knew Ashley was tired of waiting around, when she ignored rank and simply reffered to you as "Mr." or "Ms."

"in a few seconds cap-"

He was interupted as the lights all came back on and a loud voice came over the ship.

"Good afternoon crew of the Earth! My name is Gibbs and i'll be your A.I. for this flight."

Ashleys head sunk below her sholders as she cursed Quib and his AI. Gibbs had a high pitched english accept and aparently a sense of humor, the geth wanted him to resmble humanity as a whole. They choose a english personality because that's who they spoke to when they were in london. A small green orb appeared on the hub console and it danced around singing.

"Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me."

Ashley pinched the bridge of her nose as did Ms. White.

"Why? Why does he need a personality?" She asked aloud.

Quibs voice came back over the intercom. "Fully actualized AIs make better desisisons based on compassion as well as relevant data, much like the Normandys AI, Who was affectionately named "EDI" by her crew. And from what platform know as Legion observed she caught the attention of your pilot."

Ashley sighed as the geth made his point. Gibbs' personality and his ablility to built a relationship with the crew is probubly what would keep him from killing them all ("You are my crewmates"- EDI, Mass Effect 2).

"AI Gibbs reporting for duty captain!" He appeared a foot away from Ashleys face in the form a small green orb and waited there for her to acknowledge him.

"Hello, Gibbs can you by any chance...tone it down?"

"Oh I can tone it down captain." All of the lights on the ship then dimmed.

"God damnit."

" See what I did there? That was a little joke I did, funny right? Oh we're going to friends I can tell. I'm a real cheeky basterd aren't I? Haha."

Ashley turnned to the others who were just as surprised as she was.

"No." Sandra stepped to the console and tried to reach the engineer deck.

"No?" Gibbs sounded dispointed. "What do you mean no? I introduce myself and you imediately judge me? That's a little messed up innit? I mean I have feelings, kind of... How would you feel If you were being you and someone didn't even give you a chance? I mean-"

Ashley interupted him "Can you follow my orders?"

He paused for a moment then responded. "Well of course, I was just breaking the ice you know? It's a little nerve racking when your born and people are already trying to put you down innit?"

Ashley bent down to speak with him eye-to-eye. "You can stay as long as you keep focused on the job, understand?"

"Yeah, yeah-"

"Excuse me?"

"Uh, I mean yes sir-ma'am I mean ma'am. And what a lovely ma'am you are, If I had real eyes I'd stare at ya as you walked away, I don't just say that to everyone."

His green orb of a body nodded and then disapeared. Ashley turnned to the others and sighed. Liam was awaiting her orders as Ryan walked over to her with Sandra next to him.

"Good luck captian looks like you've got your hands full." He held out his hand.

Ashley took it and replied. "Sir if having a snarky AI means my hands are full then we've got a whole new set of problems."

"That we do, I'll see you at the send off. Darcey, you behave now." He nodded to him as Ryan and Ms. White left the CIC.

Liam approached her. "Captain, may I suggest you retire to your cabin?"

"You may, as long as you point me in the right direction." She said.

"Same place as the Normadys." He smiled and walked to his station.

Ashley opened the doors to her new room and again she couldn't keep the smile off of her face, no aquarium but it was like a small apartment. Their was even a kitchen, personal bathroom, queen sized bed, a couch and a big lounging chair that sat next to a bookshelf. On her desk was a picture of her and the Normandy SR1 crew and next to that was her Sisters and her dad. She pulled her fathers tags out of her pocket and set them next to the picture.

When she sat down at the desk the top lit up green and Gibbs appeared on it.

"Captain."

She jumped slightly and glared at the little green orb that was no bigger than her fist.

"Yes, Gibbs?"

"Mr. Ryan left you a little something in the second drawer, he told me to tell you five minutes ago to tell you when you sat down at your desk. Also, I've compiled a playlist of music I'd like to play can I-"

"No, and thank you."

"But, they're my hot jams."

She tapped her desk and the green hue went away. He has an off button, yes. She checked the second drawer and pulled out a bottle of burbon, she hadden't drank hard liquor in a while, attached to it was a card that read

_For courage, not cowerdice._

_-Ryan_

"Thanks." She muttered.

Ashley leaned back in her chair and rested her feet on her desk and decided to check through the data pad before further exploring the ship.

**Citidel**

**Zakara ward**

**Lt. Margret "Maggie" Flint**

**Cmdr. Liam Darcey**

**1:30 pm**

Maggie was walking with Jean, Liam and Nora who she had become fast friends with surprisingly given their different fields and backrounds. Maggie figured she'd give Jean a shot since he was nice enough and she was always happy to hang out with her cousin. She remembered visiting him when she was a teenager and being jelous that he got to live by the beach and she was in boring San Antonio, they would sneek around the neighborhood and he kept her company when Tyler was at school. He was always happy to take care of her dispite their slight age gap, Liam is six years older than her. He still took her to the beach and the carnivals at the peirs he was like her second brother. It's why she was willing to take the mission to find him if it was someone else they would have rather killed him and his crew.

They were trying to enjoy their last few days on the citidel by walking around the wards, that's where you found all of the good stuff like random turian trinkets or salarian art which was usually to expensive for the average person. But what Maggie saw in the window of an antique shop nearly made her shout.

"Whoa look at that." She stopped and the others did to see what caught her eye.

"What?" Jean asked.

"What? Look." She pointed at an old acustic guitar sitting in a store window. She knew how to play but hadden't since she joined the military, Maggie was in a garage band when she was a teenager. She had a electric guitar at home but never owned an acustic. Since most modern electric guitars had amps built into them and sound modifiers to make them sound acustic she didn't need one, even though she never used the acustic setting on it.

"Get it." Liam shrugged.

"I would but..."

"Oh-ho, not this again." He almost laughed as he walked away.

Nora watched as Liam entered a coffee shop, she wanted to follow because now she was a third wheel but Jean decided to go with Liam before Maggie could beg for cash. So she looked at Nora put his hands together in a feign begging position.

"Please Nora?"

"Fine..." She sighed as they entered the store.

Maggie imediatly was distracted by all the old music instruments and CDs their were even a few records on display, granted all the good records were kept on Earth in prestine condition but it was still cool to see them. Nora took piano lessons when she was little and could still play but she choose not to because she perferred to dedicate her time to science and technology. Maggie was able to sit down with the instrument before having Nora buy it, she fiddled the strings with her thumb while she tuned it. Nora sat across from her and waited paitently as Maggie played.

"So, I saw how you look at Liam. You gonna go for it?" Maggie said non-chalantly

"Hm?" Nora pretened she didn't hear her.

Maggie looked up from the guitar and smiled sympathetically.

"It's fine if you are, how old are you anyway?"

"Thirty-Three, My birthday is in April, so I guess I'll be thirty-four soon."

Maggie widened her eyes as she plucked a few more strings.

"Wow, you look twenty-eight to me." She said.

"Thanks." Nora felt a little better now knowing that she at least would age well, hopfully still but she wasen't holding her breath.

"Now, about Liam-"

"Really?" Nora moaned.

"Yes really, I think you'd have a shor, you've got all the right curves-"

"Please just stop right there, and besides he's my superior officer isn't that a little-I don't kow, weird?" She started playing with her omni-tool.

Maggie shrugged, technically she was Jeans superior and she didn't think it was weird.

"I don't know, but that didn't stop your parents did it?"

"Oh ha-ha." Nora mocked, her mother and fathers nearly perfect story almost made her jelous.

Maggie then thought about it for a second.

"That's actually kinda hot, the lone commander Shepard falls for his foxy second-in-comand."

"Please don't discribe my mother as "Foxy" at least not when I'm around."

Nora contained her laughter at the thought, but Maggie did have a point a strange way to make her point but she made it none the less. She wrestled with the idea of persuing Liam, he was pretty out of her league and he an Mara seemed pretty close as well. How could she compete with a gorgeous asari whose every contour made men go crazy, Nora was happy being Nora but a little attention now and then never hurt either she had gotten stares from men before but the difference between men and women was that all men stare. Which was fine but it certainly didn't get her anywhere and asari didn't just have sex, their nervous system melds with their mates, connecting their minds. How that was even possible was beyond her understanding.

"So, maybe I like Liam, kinda sorta. How would I even get him to notice me when corpral T'rya is around him all the time, have you seen her?"

Maggie rested her arms on the instrument and thought to herself.

"Nah, they're just friends. I don't think that will ever change."

"But-"

"Stop, you're thinking to much. Stop useing your head and make sure to walk infront of Liam to show off your perky butt."

Nora felt a little uncomfortable with that statement, she even felt uncomfortable using Liams first name instead of XO Darcey or commander. Maggie seemed satisfied with how the guitar sounded and they walked over to the counter to buy it. The instrument was pretty cheap since it had been sitting for a few years and they left the store.

"Look their they are, put your hair down." Maggie pulled Noras curly red hair out of a pony tail and it fell to her sholders. The guys walked over and handed them coffees even on the citidel their infact was a starbucks and down the corner to the right was another one.

"Ah, I see you conned our poor engineer Shepard into buying you junk." Liam joked as he walked over and smiled at Nora and raised an eyebrow at Maggie.

"It most certainly is not junk." She defened

They started walking back to the ship, passing stores and random crowds as they did so.

"Yeah well I better not hear it during the night shift, or I'll have to confiscate it."

"Well to bad for you because it just so happens that the night shift is my favorite time to play gutiar."

Shaking his head Liam wrapped his arm around the back off his cousins neck and pulled her close, she smiled as they parted and she looked to Nora then pointed at something and asked her to look at one of the screens that was propped up in a window and sitting low. Liam looked in the direction as well and then noticed Nora bending down to look at the screen and being a man of class he respectivly looked away in the other direction and saw that Maggie had caught him in his small glance.

She didn't say anything as she fit her hand with Jeans and they started walking away. Liam then understood what she was doing but didn't understand why. It didn't matter to him anyway Maggie was always nice and it seems he was her way of being nice to Nora. He walked over to see her stand up and she looked a little distraught.

"You should see this." She pointed at the vid screen and he saw a camra man runnig from gunfire and laser blasts as the news anchor read a report.

"Alliance public enemy number one; Richard Brenks, attacks terminous systems colony Torsal Nym in force. TS Sheriffs are trying to contain the fighting but are being slowly pushed back as Brenks' supper soldiers and his small fleet desimate the colony. The Alliance has not yet reached out to Aria T'loak; leader of the Terminous System, to offer suport. We'll keep you posted here on the Battle Space."

Liam was almost in shock, after all this time he finally came out of hiding. He saw no coincidence in Brenks attacking the planet he was on almost a year ago, he had to get the others so they could find away to go after him. When he and Nora both got pinged on their omni-tools.

"Darcey?" It was Captain Williams.

"Yes captain?"

"You near a vid screen?"

"Yeah."

"Report to the ship asap ACIAs orders, Williams out."

Nora sighed and looked at Liam. "Well, shore leave was short lived."

"It always is when you're the best, comon we need to go."

Liam didn't have a hint of ego as he said it, it was true Ryan only got the best for the job and they were finally getting the oportunity to prove it. A little to early but Liam was dieing for round two with Brenks and this time he had a lot more help as did the others he was going to do what ever it took to get his feet on the ground or in Brenks' dreadnaught the Juptier. He and Nora soon caught up with the others as they reached the taxi to get to the ship. He'd been waiting almost eight years to finally meet Mr. Brenks again and it looked like all that waiting was about to pay off.


	7. Help Is On The Way

**Torsal Nym**

**Prospect**

**Under heavy siege**

**former population 500**

**current estimate 235**

Sheriff Lenore Alder had been fighting the cerberus forces for three days now and she was finally breaking a sweat. They were slowly loosing as the cerberus forces enclosed on them, prospect was built to house and entertain the miners that worked there. It was by no means a "planned comunity" if their was ever a problem the people trusted the sheirff to take care of it and Lenore was one of the few Terminous Systems Sheriffs to actually be liked by the people she technically ruled. And she hated that cerberus practically desimated the entire city in minutes from orbit almost every building was leveled or on fire with the thick black smoke covering the sky as embers flew in the air she had to wear a oxygen mask it was so bad. The Krogan who worked as protecters didn't need one because of their strong lungs, and they have four of them so who cares if they loose one.

But with her cancer it was becoming increasingly hard to breath. She was in remission after a few months of treatment and smog like this could bring it back, that wasent her concern at the moment right now she had people heading to evacuation shuttles and they were being transported in the opposite direction towards Aphras the only other habitable planet in the system. She was sitting, back to cover as Jax opened fire on incoming soldiers she hint the heat sink and the thermal clip shot out of the gun blinking red. She fumbled on her belt for another one and shoved it in, pulling her rifle close to her face she slowly slid up and peered over the porch of Oasis it was one of the only buildings left standing. She felt it strange that another bombardment haddent taken place they had been fireing down in regular intervals and leveled most of the city.

"Sheriff I've lost contact with most of the other teams. Transmissions completely blocked."

Jax kept a close eye on the streets and skys, he had a mounted machine gun and had been keeping cerberus from getting close to them while Colin was gaurding the back door. Lenore let out a sigh and set her gun down to check her pistol, still loaded and ready she tugged on her sword strap and made sure it was tight she accidently pulled a little to hard and had to loosen it again.

Colins voice rang out from down the hall. "I sure hope our distress signal went out!"

"Dass wir schon zwei. Tired yet?" She called back.

"Eh, I'll make it, how about you Jax?"

Jax snorted. "Was that a question?" He felt a bullet graze his armor and he fired in the direction it came from.

Lenores omni-tool blinked and she tapped the back of her hand activating it.

"Alder."

"Reinforcements...way...minutes."

Tyler felt the shuttle kick as it brought him and his sisiter to the outskirts of the city. Maggie and Tylers specialty was infiltration and sabotage their mission was to destroy the jamming tower that was blocking comunications from the planet. Cerberus was keeping it somewhere in the city they belived it was located in the eastern part of town but that was it. Tyaler and Maggie had no communication with the Earth nor the other ground team deploied closer to the Sheriff and her fighters.

Tyler slid his laser rifle off his sholder and fit it into his hands. The now laser weapons tipically had a more blocky design because it was more practical then a gun that has to unflod seven different way to be used. However the laserrifles looked a lot different since they did not compact they were more like automatic sniper rifles. Tyler knelt down to put a clip into the side of his gun as he turnned to Maggie. He activated a signal tracker on his omni-tool and waited as it was aquiring the location of the jamming beacon.

"I'm getting a signal over here." He jerked his head to the left.

"Me too, what explosive did you bring?"

"I thought you brought some."

"God...damn it Ty." She dialed the scope on her sniper rifle and looked through the scope.

"Guess we'll have to improvise."

Tyler shrugged standing up he started a slow jog into the city and Maggie followed. They found themselves going down a narrow torn up street the buildings that surounded it were collapsed and buring with the stench of death in the air. Maggie sighed after they hopped over a Skycar that blocked their path.

"What?"

"We were here a few months ago, now look at this place."

"Yeah, it sucks for them but we can't let that get to us right now." He pressed on and as always Maggie followed close behind.

"It'd be nice if we could get an air assement of the area though." Tyler mumbled.

"All the more reason to take down the Jamming tower." Maggie replied as her HUD scanners picked up movement.

"Ty, I've got four mobiles coming in from the east, i'm guessing foot patrol."

She brought up her scope and zoomed down the road, Cerberus had bomed the area so hard that you couldn't go six feet without having to use thermal to see through the smoke. Tyler ran to a building and lept through the broken window, while Maggie set Her rifle down on a former street vendor cart and flicked the bipod out.

"Mags I can lay down a stasis feild from here."

She waited, assesing the situation. "You sure you don't see anything else?"

"Positive."

"Alright, lay it on them."

She waited as he shot a stasis bubble at the patrol team and Maggie lined her first shot perfectly going through the visor on a soldiers helmet, the next one she hit in the chest then the stasis wore off and she missed the third one.

"Ty, open fire!"

He poked his head out of the window and nailed the third one that Maggie missed. She clipped the other in the leg causing him to stumble but not fall, he bolted down a derilict allyway and Tyler threw a pull in a tossing motion as he hopped out of the building and walked over to the man he had suspended in the air. He pulled him down and shoved a omni-blade in his throat. Maggie sighed as she caught up to him, still scanning the streets with her eyes she glanced at her brother then returned her watchfull gaze to the eastern side of town.

"I'm downloading the info on his omni-tool, should only take a moment."

"Yeah well it looks like one off our friends was able to call his budies." She saw a transport fly over and a squad of cerberus forces hopped out and inspected the bodies.

"Hurry up." Maggie turned to him to see how much longer this was going to take.

"Just three more seconds...done." He stood up and patted Maggies sholder signaling her to follow him. She turned back around and they ran through the allyway.

"So where are we headed?"

"Not far but it'll take us at least fifteen minutes on foot." He said as they reached the end of the ally. Maggie took point and peered around the corner making sure the coast was clear.

"Fan-tastic." She said as they ran across the street.

John Murrcurio led his team through the wreckage of buring buildings and finally could see the sheriff and what ever was left of her fighting force.

"Lets go, double time!" They all sprinted to Oasis with Allyson brining up the rear.

"God they're slow." She joked as she passed John.

She could have blown past them but she kept to her assigned position while John covered them from across the street. Their were a few enemys held up in buildings and behind ruined cars and street vendor carts firing at them.

"Can't wait for that Jamming tower to go down." Hawkins said as they reach Oasis.

"You and me both pal." Shultz reached Oasis first and knocked on the baracaded door. It was opened by a large Krogan who greeted him with a shotgun.

"Friendly, we're friendly!" Shultz cried out as Jax had a look of disapointment as he let them inside. John was across the street in no time as Jax motioned them to move quickly. Allyson and Jack had taken position with Colin in the back, Wilson, Dorian and Hawkins were in the front with Lenore and Adams had procured the mounted machine gun and kept cerberus busy.

"Sheriff." John acknowleged.

"About time someone came." She said.

"Most of the civilians are either in the evac zone...or dead." She swallowed hard realizing she had failed the people she swore to protect.

"You did what you could sheriff which was better than most."

"Eh, save it. right now..." She started caughing violently as the smog was getting to her lungs through her breathing mask.

Colin hurried over to make sure she was alright.

"I'm fine...danke-"

John looked her in the eye through his visor, "Maybe you should sit this one out."

She recvoered and gave him a look that would make even John a little intimidated under his helmet.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that, now. They've got two sixty cals raining down on us and we need you to take them out."

"Sounds good Shultz, Parish, Dorian you stay here, the rest are with me."

Allyson, Jean and Jack confirmed in unisine with a "yes sir" and Hawkins, Wilson and Adams rejoined him. John led them to the back door and Colin opened it, they were met with some resitance but the others put them down quickly.

"Sir, I thought cerberus had super soldiers, these guy are practically cannon fodder not to mention They can't shoot straight." Hannah said as they began to go around the buildings to the first MG nest.

"Yeah, something ain't right here," Ray said as he took cover behind the first nest.

"We'll figure it out after we get the sheriff and her people out of this mess until then stay focused got it?"

"Yes sir."

They may have all been private contractors before this but they took to military disipline like fish to water. The major was surprised normally PMCs were assholes who only wanted a paycheck, Ryan sure knew how to pick'em.

They were stacked on both sides of the back door to the small machine gunner nest they used a sonar scanner that detected movement and sound to see past the door, now knowing where the enemy was Frank kicked in the door and Hawkins tossed a flash bang inside. Hannah was the first to enter the door blasting away with her mean-ass shotgun taking out the first two men at the door, Ray followed her up by shooting down the gunner, Frank and John were the last ones in.

"Hawkins get on that turret and cover us, we're gonna cut straight across the street." John looked to his alphas and nodded, "Ready?" They nodded back and they waited for Ray to give the go ahead.

"Now!" He laid down surpressing fire and the alphas bolted across the street as cerberus fired down at them from the MG nest that rested on the second floor of a building with a broken sign that was done in the asari tounge. John broke through the door and toppled over a cerberus trooper laying down on his left arm he propped his gun up and blasted a few laser rounds into the troopers on the right side as Frank poped off a head shot into a soldier hiding behind a couch. The sonnar scanner was so acurate they knew where your head was because it detected breathing.

They Hurried up the stairs and gave the cerberus forces the same treatment as the others. Surgical precision and everyone followed orders to the letter. At least they could perform, but something was knawing at John as they stood in the final MG nest. Frank took pver the Machine gun and used it against the troopers down the street, Hannah picked up a sniper rifle that was dropped and took aim. And Ray stayed in the other building On the machine gun. Since their comms were jammed John signaled with a red flare that he tossed out the window and onto the street letting the others know the objective was complete.

He had to admit, these cerberus troopers were barely a match for regular soldiers much less augmentated super soldiers like his team. He really wanted to contact Williams or at least have Gibbs watch his back but with that Jamming tower up nothing was getting through, he couldn't even talk to his team unless he was within three yard of them.

Tyler could see the tower from his point of veiw, he was on his stomach crawling under the smoke and fire and slowly making his way as Maggie was up high giving him sniper cover, she attached a silencer to her gun and was taking out soldiers as Tyler got close to them. They were able to string together some granades as a way to destroy the tower. He rolled under a truck as it past and grabbed onto the bottom untill he reached an area with relitive cover. He could see the tower but the whole area was gaurded surprisingly well, cerberus had been their long enough to establish a real outpost on the planet which ment their would be an officer around somewhere who could give them some usefull intel.

He took cover behind sand bags under two enemey sentries Tyler outstreched his left arm and marked one of the targets for Maggie. He knew she was watching him and counted down from three with his fingers on three Maggie took out her target and Tyler lept over cover shoved a curved combat knife into his targets neck and twisted it. Omni-blades were much more efficiant but they were noisey and brightly colored making a simple lnife the choice for tactical infitration. He continued on to the outpost that surounded the tower, he stopped dead in his tracts and took cover behind stacked crates as a shuttle landed at the platform next to the tower he saw an officer step out with two seven foot tall gaurds. He swallowed hard and cursed to himself. He used a sonar scanner to see behind the crates it would only work if he stood still and the positions of enemys would leave his HUD with out a propped conection to a vessel that would normally monitor he and Maggies missions.

The officer entered the Building that seemed to serve as their base of opperations. He slinked off from cover as the big guys were out of sight and took cover behind the building. He used the sonar scanner again and placed one of the granades on a timer for ten minutes and stuck it to the side of the building he nodded in Maggies direction and moved past the building (09:85)

He crouched and moved as fast as he could around the front of the building, he got down on his stomach again when he reached cover and crawled as a patrol passed next to him on the other side. (08:94) The tower was a few yards away, he had to spider crawl to keep his armor plates from scraping the dirt and gravel. If he made a noise they'd be onto him and the explosives would go off to soon. (08:05) He reached the end of the cover and stood on one knee peering out from cover their was a squad of four in his way he heard a sharp rap on one of the truck that were in the opposite direction and the gaurds were drawn away from him as he switched cover he gave Maggie a thumbs up. (07:32)

The tower was now in reach as he made his way to one of the legs that propped it up a gaurd noticed him he had to act fast and reached for his gun the gaurd began to call for back up as his head jerked to the side in a sharp thud as Maggie sent a bullet through his helmet, Tyler ran to catch the body he set him down gently and gave a sigh of releaf as he got back to work placing two charges on each leg and then he had to find cover. (03:08) He picked up the weapon from the fallen gaurd and moved quickly to avoid the blast and possibly the tower itself, it was going to fall and he hoped it fell where he wanted it to but wasent going to hold his breath (02:46) as he found a suitable spot behind a troop transport he had to take out two gaurds and hid the bodies under the truck. He got behind it and held up his watch (again omni-tools make noise and produce a bright light making conventional tactics more suitable for stealth operatives) their were thrity seconds left and he was proud of himself for properly syncing the timers on the tower and outpost.

When the wall blew out The officer was now exposed to Maggie and she put a round into his left knee cap and another though the super soldiers neck, however he didn't go down. She pulled her head back from her scope and mouthed, "Uh-oh." as the tower went down she could hear static in her headset.

"Saturn one do you copy?" Tylers voice came in nice and clear.

"Yeah, nice work Saturn two, but I suggest you get your ass out of there. Do not engage the Officer those gaurds mean buisness."

They had picked up the officer and carried him outside She watched as Tyler waited for them, they came outside and saw that the tower fell on the shuttle so they ran to one of the troop transports and placed the officer inside. Tyler started up the one he took cover behind and followed them as they drove off.

"This is Saturn Two to Over watch with eyes on a moblie HVT and two Omega class soldiers. Over watch do you copy?"

" Loud and clear Satrun two, this is Over watch please stand by as we locate your position."

Tyler chased them down as they rounded corners and flew over wreckedge. He nearly tipped over as they flew through an ally, Maggie contacted the other ground team.

"This is Saturn one to Mars team what's your position?"

"Three miles west Saturn one, would you like us to meet you half way?"

"No thanks Mars, but watch out you've got Saturn two plus a moblie HVT and two omegas watch your back Saturn one out."

Grim had taken out three cerberus fighters and was going for a fourth until Trust-fund called out for help. He barrel rolled over and found him with two bogeys hot on his tail.

"This is Aquila 0-4 i'm en route to your position hang in their trust-fund."

He pulled his fighter to the right and got behind the human fighters and locked on, he let one of his missles fly and it rocketed through space to hit its targets engines causing them to explode into a flash flame then nothing but dibries. Trust-fund yanked his ship up and back around nearly brushing Grim as he did so but now the enemy fighter was after him and banked left to avoid the collison.

"Thanks Grim."

"Don't mention it." He whipped his fighter around and cut the engine causing it to fly backwards he fired at the ship and gunned it as he hit the cockpit doging the flaming ship as it exploded. In space Newtons law were very real, he could do things like cut his engine and keep moving at the same speed with no gravity or airforce to slow him down. Ghouls Voice came over the radio,

"We've got bombers heading for the Earth and planetside, Trust-fund, Outlaw we're protecting the Earth. Grim, kid you two head planet side and keep them off our guys."

"Yes sir." Grim and Kid formed up and dove head first to the surface in order to catch up with the bombers that already had a headstart. They blasted through the atmosphere like it was butter and reached the surface in no time flat.

"Just you and me Grim."

"Yep, lets show these humans how turians fly."

"Hell yeah." Kid was a gifted pilot for his age and he was definately better than most fully grown turian pilots than Sylas has met. He kept a cool head and his hand on the stick and always had his teams back. That's really all lne could ever ask of his fellow wing.

"Kid I've got a visual." Grim said as his computer targeted the bombing squad of four.

"Me too. How should we proceed?"

Grim bamked to the left side and responded.

"You go right we're going to samdwich them."

"Sounds good." Kid took position, they were still a good distance behind them but bombers were slow once they lined up their shots they hit the thrusters. They locked onto their targets and fired as they flew past them, Grim looked back to make sure he hit his target and saw it burn up and plumet to the surface. They were still a ways outside and above the city so they had the space to manuver around the bombers. Kid hit his target but barely he had clipped the ship and it spiraled downward.

"Shit that was close." He said.

"You're doing fine Kid." Grim reasured him.

They were almost within the city limits and had to hurry. He got a transmission from the Mars ground team.

"This is Aquila 0-4 go ahead."

"Aquila Four this is Mars one, I have vissual on the bombers."

"Hold on Mars, help is on the way, Aquila oh-four out." He ended the transmission and hailed Kid.

"Alright these guys have to go right now."

"You go it."

They got in position for the same manuver and punched it agian nearly reaching mach speed Grim felt his ship pull him back and he fired a missle but he was going so fast it came back at him and hit the side of his ship, Kid wasen't going as fast and hit his target.

"Grim, are you there?!" He called.

A fire broke out in his cockpit and he had to eject. he pulled the lever under his seat and the windsheild opened shooting him out and into the air. He hit the chute and he floated down to the surface watching as the lone bomber hit its target, he couldn't believe what he had done. It was a rookie mistake he had no right to go that fast. Kid had to circle back and take out the ship but the damage had been done. He just prayed that it missed its target.

Allyson heard the bomber relive its pay load above them, she jumped onto Sherifd Alder and held her down as the bombs fell next to the building causing it to crumble. She waited as it crashed ontop of her and had the Sheriff covered when it finished toppleing over she pushed the debris off her back and stood up. Pulling Lenore to her feet she thanked sargeant Parish and she saw Jax stumble out of the wreckegde covering his right ear. She looked around for the others and saw more debris begin to move, Allyson rushed over and lifted it off of Jean who was unscathed as for Colin, his head was crushed under the pressure of a structural beem.

Lenore walked over and saw his body she stood over him a moment before bending down and picked up his baseball hat, she let out a long sigh then tucked it into her back pocket and swallowed back a tear.

"Ruhe in frieden, mein freund." She patted Allysons armored sholder and turned around to manuver through the wreckage.

"Shultz!" Allyson called his name as she dug through the rubble. Jean helpped her as they called his name.

Jean called her over as he stopped rumaging.

"I found him!" He tried to wake him up but Jack just laid their.

Gibbs finally came through into their helmets. "Ello, what'd I miss. Oh."

Allyson put in the call for a med-evac. "This is Mars 0-2 to all shuttles, we've got a man down on our position we need an evac now, Prospect is secure."

"0-2, this is Io we are in the area and will be at your postion in less than seven minutes."

She and Jean pulled Shultz out of the building and carried him to the streets.

"Gibbs, give us an analysis."

"Four broken ribbs a punctured lung and a fractured femur as well as a concussion I suggest you get him to medical cheif Rove as soon as possible."

They could hear the shuttle in the distance as Jack started mumbling. Allyson gave him some medigel to take the pain away as she loaded him on the shuttle, she and Jean hopped on and the shuttle lifted off without the others. They'd have to wait for another while their comrad and friend was hopefully making it to the ship.

John was in the middle of the street with the other alphas and he contacted Gibbs.

"Gibbs I need a scan of the city, any enemys left?"

"Well their was that HVT that you all forgot about."

Tyler hit the gear shift and the truck drove straight into the other, he was able to get ahead of them and double back through an allyway and t-boned the HVTs vehical crashing him into the side of a building with rubble falling down on them. As the dust settled Tyler lifted his head off the stearing wheel and grunted as he checked himself to see if anything was broken he could feel blood slowly dripping from his nose and his head fell like he crashed a truck into another truck. He felt his eye swell as well as he removed the seatbelt to get out, his door was ripped off an omega grabbed him by the sholder and threw him out of the truck. He laned on the pavement rolling until he stopped himself in a push-up position and stood up.

"Aw shit." He cursed as the omega rushed him, quickly he doged the blow with a roll and pulled out his laser pistol and continuosly shot him until the trigger kept clicking. They were all chest shots and one head shot that grazed the left side of his temple he lunged for Tyler and grabbed him by the neck. He had never felt a rush like this before being on the edge of death was a sort of terrifing yet liberating feeling, made sense only now does he feel something that no one else could make hime feel; alive. He prepared himself for the worst when a flash came from his perifrial vison and before he knew it Tyler was on the ground.

"Damn." He shot back up on his feet and and shoved his knife into the knee of the omega as another shot rang out and he was hit again. Another after another and he still stood although bleeding from almost every limb the omega limped to him, a smile crossed Tylers face as he the omega dropped to his knees he positioned himself behind him and dragged his blade across his throat and watched as he blead out.

He was breathing heavy and watched the blood trickle off his hands it was orange not red. He was intrigued by it he sheathed his knife and walked over to the wreckage of the trucks and noticed the officer was crawling as the other omega had a pole through his neck from the rubble. Maggie came from above and landed infront of him.

"Hey!"

"What?"

"Where's your ear-peice?" She asked. "Did it fall off in the crash?"

"Must have." Tyler was only now noticing its absince he brought his hand up to his ear and ran his hand across where it should have been.

"Sorry." He shrugged.

Maggie removed her helmet and clipped it to her belt. "It's alright, it fell off." She looked in his eyes but as usual found nothing.

They then turnned to the officer who left a nasty trail in the sand. Maggie walked over and kicked his ribs, stopping him she she cuffed his hands and sent out a beacon, they found a picnick bench that was only half scortched and dragged their prize over and sat him up against the table.

"Fire the thanix cannon, lets open that tin can." Ashely was looming over the CIC as they were locked in battle with the Jupiter and its small fleet of crusiers that were all but obliterated. The Earth had positioned itself facing forward so the main cannons could ripp through its sheilds and armor. The communications officer Tashia Dalare asked for Williams's attention.

"Ma'am we're being hailed."

"Is it the Jupiter?"

"Yes."

"Put it through." Ashley saw him, she saw Brenks he was sitting (Horse shit, if he gets a chair how come I don't?) He was clapping slowly as he stood up he walked around his chair and leaned on the back.

"Thank you for your time captain." He ended the transmisson.

"The hell? Dalare bring him back."

"I can't sir-"

Gibbs interupted. "Captian I'm so sorry to ineterupt but he was somehow able to pass through our security systems undetected and stole our friend or foe indicater."

Ashely slammed her fist on the perches railing. "Fuck!"

"It the planet evacuated?"

"Yes captain, the last transport ship had just arrived with a high valued target aboard. I suggest water boarding."

"Not now Gibbs, get me admiral Horn. Now!"

She waited as she turned to the small platform attached to the perch lit up and a broad sholdered Admiral Horn stood looking at her.

"Captain Williams, was Brenks apprehended?"

"No sir, he's heading for the master relay now."

He let out a sigh, "High tail it back to the citidel."

"But we can-"

"Get your ass back to the citidel." He ended the transmission, Ashley leaned against the railing and rubbed her forehead.

"Self, set a course for the citidel."

"Yes ma'am."

She pushed off the perch and walked back down to the elevator and went to her quarters. When she reached it she plopped down in her desk chair and let out a sigh. Great first mission and it's a failure, hell of a shakedown run though now a maniac has a way to get past our defenses and slip into the master relay. She heard a knock on the door, reluctantly Ashley unlocked it and let whoever it was in.

"Yes?" She asked as she turned around in her chair.

"Captain." Liam nodded as he walked in, he looked around and shook his head.

"Damn, you know I have to shower with the rest of the crew?"

"What do you want Darcey?"

He saw that she was in no mood and stood up a little more straight.

"I know what you might be going through, I had five people to look after for seven years and you've got five hundred-give or take."

"Look Darcey, I appreciate the gesture but if you could leave me alone-"

"Captain their will be more days like this to come I can asure you of that."

Ashley look irated that he interuppted her so he kept speaking before she told him to leave.

"But I just want you to know that you're never alone on this ship. And I don't think your the only one that feels like they let people down today. I know you want to take time to cool off but their is a ship and a crew that's needs you."

"Commander I get it just-"

"No, you don't. Forgive the disrespect but Captain how dare you run up here and hide when we have wounded soldiers and refugees to transport we may have lost Brenks but we saved hundreds and I think they'd like to have a word with you."

Ashely swallowed as she waited for him to finish. Liam gave her a salute and left the room as he reached the elevator he heard Williams call for him. He turnned around and she appearred at the door.

"Thanks Darcey, I guess I needed a kick in the reer."

"Your welcome Captain, just following your example."

She looked down shaking her head as he boarded the elevator and the doors shut infront od him. She decided to take the next one down to the holding bay where the refugees were. Who knew that Ashley Williams still had a few things to learn?

"Sylas!" Ghoul ran to his squad mate who was sitting on a crate playing with a locket.

"Sylas what happened down there? Are you alright?"

"No, i'm not Markus but thanks for asking." He hopped off the crate as a crewman came for it and hauled it back to the refugees that had to board the Earth instead of flying to Aphras. They were bringing them to the Citidel and they could sort themselves out there. Sylas turnned back to Gravis shaking his head and put the locket back down his shirt.

"I wasen't watching my speed, I got to cocky and I was going to fast for the missile to travel out of its chamber. And someone got hurt because I didn't take that bomber out in time."

Ghoul nodded his head and rested a hand on his friends sholder.

"Hey, his name is Shultz and he's fine. I checked on him before I came and talked to you, he's one of those alphas so it looks like the spirits were looking out for you."

Grim felt some relief that Shultz was alright but he still hated the fact that he put people in that situation, but he knew that someone died in that hotel as well. One of the sheriffs got his head crushed under suport beems, he didn't have the curage to face Shultz right now but he knew he'd have to later. But until then he nodded and thanked his squad leader and asked to be alone for a little while longer.

Richard Brenks sat in his chair that overlooked the CIC, he was waiting for them to exit the relay so he could excape into dark space. As soon as the Jupiter came out he order the pilot to go full speed to the relay without any delay.

"Yes sir."

The ship sped past all the defenses that had been put into place. The information that the Jupiter provided was extensive and very helpfull to his cause, he waited as the council fleet realized he wasen't with the Alliance and they blew past them and hit the relay full speed ahead.

"Sir our power levels are off the charts we need to disengage!"

"Keep the corse! We're going to make it to the other side trust me, take power from the engines and we'll be able to coast on the relays power."

He waited as the ship stabled itself and they came out of the relay. All of the crew stood up and looked to him, an accomplished smile drew across his face as he stood up.

"Ladies and gentlemen I give you a new galaxy!"

They clapped as he walked the deck to enter the cockpit and get a look at the new galaxy that lay infront of them. When he looked out the window he saw a beautiful nebula that strung out infront of them he bent over the pilots seat and typed in coardinates.

"We'll start here, full speed ahead Jackson."

"You got it captain."

He had already got his revenge now he had one more thing planned. He wanted to find the origin of Jason and Devin they were complete anomolies and he believed they were the keys to true human evolution the omegas were a means to an end but the brothers could change the way we perceave ourselves, Jason saw the world in a different way it was like some doors were open for him and only him and the ones that were closed could be opened by Devin. In the eighteen years he studied Jason he was able to harness some of his power and used the knowlegde to build his ship. The only place that could give him true answers would be their birth place the anomoly that happened at the master relay could be tracked but it would take a while.

But that was ok, he had time and all he had to do was stay out of the councils way. And if they got in his way he knew just how to deal with them, he walked back through the CIC a short girl barely twenty-three was standing by his chair.

"Pepper." He nodded as he sat down she walked infront of him and folded her arms. Her eye were red and she had a certain aura around her. Her voice was cold and harsh as she aknowledged him.

"Director Brenks."


	8. Early birds

**MSV Earth**

**CIC**

**T.S. Sheriff Lenore Alder**

**11:00 pm**

Lenore stood waiting in the CIC as a transmission to Aria T'loak was being put through. They were docked at the citidel and were waiting aboard the Earth until further notice, she waited as the com officer brought up Arias image she was now standing in the CIC and looked down on her Sheriff.

"Lenore, nice to see you made it out alive." She had a glimmer of sarcastic mischief in her voice as usual which ment that she was in a relitively good mood.

"Most of the miners made it out but over half the population was desimated." Lenore reported blandly as she stood arms crossed with her steel blue eye looking fiercely at Aria.

"Yes, the decline in the civilain population is a bit of a loss but we'll recover. We always do is their anything else on your mind? Or can I get back to buisness."

Lenore bit her cheek as if to stop herself from asking one question, just one. She let out a breath from her nose and looked directly at Arias image.

"Just one, why did we not recieve reinforcements when we sent out the beacon? Why was it the Alliance that saved us...and not you?"

She waited as a look of apprehension came down Arias face before she recomposed herself.

"Richard Brenks defected to the Terminous Systems six years ago. I let him go where he pleased as long as he kept paying."

She shrugged it off and stood there waiting for Lenores response.

"Sind sie mich verarschen!?" Lenore pounded her fist on the console.

"Over three hundred of my people dead! And you're the reason why?!"

"Remember who you're talking to." Airas brow furowed as she spoke.

"Remember who protected and safegaurded your investments! And your people. Colin died because of your mistake!"

"Calm down-"

"Nien! I will not calm down you commited a crime against your own people!"

Lenore was breathing heavy, this was second time a government had betrayed her and it was going to be the last.

"And I'm going to make you pay."

"Was that a threat?" Aria snapped.

"You're god damn right it was, Every crime in my system was accounted for."

"Good for you."

"_Every_ crime." Lenore emphasised again leaning into the console and staring Aria in the face.

"So I'll take this as your resignation then?" She nearly yawned.

"Yes."

"Fine, I'm sorry something so petty came between us."

"You shouldn't be sorry, you should be affraid." Lenore couldn't believe she said that but at the same time she was so furious that all of this could have been prevented. Aria didn't waste her breath and ended the transmission, it could have gone better but Lenore wouldn't be able to live with herself if she hadden't spoken out. Shortly after the former sheriff left the ship and hassen't been heard from since.

**MSV Earth**

**Tech lab**

**5:00 am**

"Are you sure this is nessesary? And if so...then why do we have to do it so early?" Devin yawned as he sat in the tech lab beneath the CIC as Doctor Valorie Dewitt,a physicist by degree and biologist by heart poked a needle through his skin.

"Ow."

"Don't be a baby it's just a-oh."

Devin glanced down and saw that nothing was entering the sryinge.

"I don't bleed." He confidently grinned.

She pulled the needle out and watched as the wound closed after being surounded by what looked like a dust cloud or smoke. She couldn't identify it but she looked curiously at Devin who had a smile on his face, he did like showing off sometimes even though he knew he scared people sometimes.

"Well then how do you-"

"I don't know." He said sitting up.

"You are an enigma Mr. Baker."

"Devin, call me Devin."

She rested her left hand on her hip as the other placed the sryinge on the table close to her.

"Alright Devin, if you don't mind." She rubbed the back of he neck akwardly as she tried to muster a sentence.

"Could you demonstrate...your powers I mean, are they a from of biotics?" She clasped her hands together holding them to her chest as she eagerly awaited his demonstration.

"Uh, kinda I had an amp but I removed it."

"Why?"

"Didn't need it." He shrugged as he scratched his cheek.

He slid off the operating table and stood up straight he turned to Dr. DeWitt.

"Ready?"

"Yes, go right ahead." She stepped back and waited.

He pushed off the ground as the same dark matter formed under his feet and kept him in the air he floated around the room, he of course couldn't help showing off by laying in the air. He stopped as he reached a terminal and poked it causing it to float in the air as he touched other instruments and furniture in the lagre lab.

"Incredible that's...I...don't even know what to say." Her Blue eyes widened at the sight.

"Yep, my brother can do other stuff, like super charge objects and make them explode or disintegrate."

She followed him around with her notebook. "So, are all your ablities combat related?"

"Hm...No but they certainly come in handy during a fight. I can survive in space. I can absorb dark energy from element zero as well as other biotics."

"Whoa, what else?" She was getting excited as he further explained his anilities.

"Well I can break down into atomic form, honeslty though I'm not even sure how I age."

He thought as he stopped infront of her and touched the ground.

"Just amazing, imagine all the benifits there could be if we could discover your full potential."

"Well, I don't know it's a little dangerous." He was trying to keep her expectations low. Devin had unitentionally hurt people before and even killed someone because he was careless, he didn't want to endanger the ship or its crew.

"Don't worry, I'm a professional." She said pushing her glasses up her nose.

"Alright I guess, but I wouldn't get your hopes up." He said slowly backing out of the room.

"Where are you going?" She said droping her right hand to her hip again.

"Well it's been a long night and I'm tired-"

"Don't be a baby, now do more stuff." She waved her hand as she sat down in her chair.

"What am I a Monkey?"

"No, but Neil is." She pointed to the chimp who was sleeping soundly on his small bed that sat on a shelf high above the floor.

"Why-"

"No more questions, just do your thing." She clicked her pen and waited.

Devin sighed as he disolved himself and slipped under the door. "How's that?" He muttered as he reformed on the other side and walked up to the CIC and then the elevator.

**CIC**

**Cockpit**

**two hours later**

"Today's the day." Flight liutenant Matthew Self said as he sat down in his chair.

"Yes it is, excited?" Said Haberkorn as he drank his morning coffee, cream and two sugars that's all he needed.

"Anxious definately." He said leaning in his chair.

"Good morning boys." Gibbs said as he danced around the console.

"Morning Gibbs." They moaned.

"So who's ready for some intergalactic exploration, yeah? Oh, by the way Mr. Self your laundry is done and on the floor, it was operative Flint the scary one not the friendly happy girl that everyone likes."

"Damnit What is that guys problem? I get he's a little unstable but he could at least be nice every once in a while." Matt said as he stood up and went to the crew deck.

"Have fun with tall, dark and stabby." Jason said as he took his seat at the helm.

Matt knew he only left his laundry in the dryer for at least five minutes after it was done, and because Tyler is a big bad N7 he thinks he can just toss his stuff around well Matt Self was going to give him a peice of his mind...even if it might cost him a peice of his mind. As he reached the laundry room he walked in and saw his uniforms and underwear neatly folded and set carefully on the floor with Tyler whistling to himself as he lounged in his chair playing around with his omi-tool.

"Did your laundry." He said as Matt entered the door.

"Oh, Gibbs said...nevermind, thanks."

"Yep." He nodded practically ignoring him.

Matt hauled his clothes into a basket and brought them to his bunk. he passed Liam on his way there. Who was calmly going through his data pad as he sat at one of the dinner tables.

"Morning, first officer." Mara said sitting down infront of him with her breakfast.

"Good morning corpral T'rya." He said without taking his eyes off the device.

"So captain has you doing extra work before the big jump?" She said as she munched on her breakfast.

"Uh-huh, Just doing an inventory right now seeing what we should get while we're still docked."

"Ooh, get some some new pillows the ones we have suck."

"They aren't that bad."

"My head was practically on the mattress last night." She complained.

"Then get another pillow." He said simply.

"Liam, I don't want to be _that person_. You know like, hey why does she have two pillows? What a stuck up bitch."

She said as she took a bite off her fork.

"No one is going to think you're a stuck up bitch...except Gibbs."

"What the hell Gibbs?"

Gibbs appeared on the table and faced her. "I think he was joking, besides who could hate you? Look at yourself I know I am, me-yow darling, me-yow!"

"Thank you Gibbs." Mara said trying to keep a smile off her face as Liam let the data pad fall to the table laughing.

"You were playing games this whole time?" She said.

"Well yeah what do you think I actually do?" He smiled.

Mara just shrugged and stood up bringing her plate to the cook to be washed.

"Thanks Jenny."

"No problem Mara," The mess sargeant nodded to Liam. "Sir."

"Mess sargeant."

She blushed as he handed her his mug and walked away with Mara.

"Godess, do human women get out much?" She said as they entered the elevator.

"As much as the next person." He shrugged tapping the CIC button.

"Then why is it, that all the human female crew and a select few male act like you're the first man they've ever seen?"

"I don't know, I guess that means its working."

"What is?"

"The special cologne I've always used." He beemed closong his eyes like a proud child who remebered to take out the garbage.

She pushed his face away feeling his facial hair against her plam as she giggled. "Uh-huh, yeah that's what it is, dork."

"A little I supose." he held up his forefinger and thumb. As the elevator doors opened Liam stepped out. "Coming?"

"No I have other stuff to do, see ya around dork." She waved as they doors slid shut and she tapped the armory button.

Felix heard the elevator doors open and he jumped up from his seat. "Ya!"

"You know with your funny drell voice that sounded pretty weird."

"Ah well it's also funny how if I simply make one error in fixing your laser rifle it could very well explode." He said as he regained his composure.

"Fine, fine don't get your panties in a bunch."

He glared but reached under his desk and pulled out Maras gun. "Your personal assualt rifle, I assume that's why you're here and not for the fantastic coffee, I've never had it before and I have to say it's a wonderfull drink."

"Haven't you lived on Earth for like ten years?"

"Yeah, but I never tried it until now though. It's a hell of a rush." He said as he put some magazines on the table for her to try her weapon out in the shooting range whixh was right next to the armory which shared a deck with the Hangar. The Armory sat on the far left side of the room close to the transports and was tucked away in a wall, it looked like a gun shop almost, except it was more like a vault where Felix kept everyones stuff.

"Well thanks for the toys." Mara said as she walked away.

Felix gave a friendly wave as she left. He sat back down in his chair and rolled it over to a few other projects he was working on. Felix enjoied tinkering with stuff even though he was trained as an assassin by the hanar, he didn't choose that life they chose it for him. And he chose to tinker away with just about anything although his job required him to upgrade and fix weapons for they marines stationed on the Earth. He heard a knock at his front desk and wheeled over, Nora Shepard stood waiting for him.

"Yes?" He said kindly.

"Question."

"Answer." He grinned.

Nora glanced down with her lower lip tucked under her upper as she continued. "Can you teach me how to shoot?"

"Why would an engineer want to shoot?" He wasen't going to say no but he was curious.

"I barely passed it in basic training but I just want to know. In case anything bad happens."

Felix set a compacted pistol on the counter that unfolded as it touched the surface and a laser pistol.

"Lets start small, Gibbs watch the place will ya?"

"Yes sir Mr. Felix!"

He stepped out of the armorys' little booth and walked around with the weapons in his hands and grabbed the thermals off the counter.

"Well then miss Shepard, lets shoot stuff."

"How did you-"

"Everyone knows."

Nora sighed as they entered the range, Felix set the guns down infront of her and pointed to the normal weapon first.

"Start with that one."

She picked it up and waited for futher instructions. He took his blue finger and pointed to a switch next to the trigger.

"See that?"

"Yeah, do I press it?" She flicked the switch and the gun compressed on her hand but once it reached her fingers it re-folded out.

"You're lucky their's a safety." Felix said as he had her put her other hand on the weapon

"Now just squeeze the trigger don't pull, sueeze." He said as he stepped back and activated the target dummies.

She fired three shots and hit the target on the last one.

"Not bad." Felix said and handed her a thermal clip.

"I think you're the only drell i've ever met." She said as she turnned around and faced the targets again.

Felix shrugged. "I'm not surprised we normally stay on Kahje but..."

She turned around and saw he was distraught so she changed the subject.

"I thought all drell were green."

Felix laughed as he stepped back up to her little shooting booth.

"Nah, were a whole bunch of fun colors." He smiled as he handed her the laser pistol.

"This should be easier, practically no kick."

She hit the target her first shot and continued.

"Ok, my turn." Felix started.

"Shoot." Nora said missing her target.

"How come Comander Shepards daughter can't shoot?" He walked behind her and changed her stance.

"Well, I don't know I guess I never asked." She shrugged.

"Hm, Is it our fault you lost your job?" He asked.

She nodded her head and kept shooting. "Harborring criminals does have its consequences."

"Well for what it's worth, I'm sorry." He tried to cheer her up. "You _are_ a great scientist."

"My degree is in genetics and I got the engineering one later." She said nailing her tartget square in the center.

Felix snickered as he leaned against the booth wall shaking his head.

"What?"

"You said that so casually." Felix clearn his throat and spoke in a deep voice trying to sound like a man of means.

"And after I recived tenure with my million dollar scholarship I decided that Genetics was benieth me and became and engineer, later I shall open a clinic for orphans with deasises and world hunger will be a side project."

She felt her cheeks become warm and red as she realized how it sounded, she had always been gifted in the academic feild, just no where else. Felix looked over to her with his drell eyes and asked her another question.

"What's your IQ?" He felt an uncontrolable smik climb up the right corner of his mouth.

"two hundred thirty." She muttered almost sounding disapointed. More embarassed that she was fitting his profile.

"Holy shit." Felixs' eyes widened, he realized she was far over qualified to be working with the greese monkeys in engineering.

"But...I was discredited of all my accomplishments after project alpha failed." She swallowed lowering her gun as she looked down.

"Oh."

"And I lost my job when I helpped Allyson and you guys."

"Nora I'm sorry we didn't mean to-"

"It's fine Felix." She gave him a reasuring smile, bringing her sholders up.

"Now show me how to shoot."

**CIC**

**three hours later**

"Captain Williams, due to your neglagence we are tasking you to go through the relay early in order to apprehend Richard Brenks, you are to proceed imediately."

"Yes sir." Ashley said in a hollow voice as the admirals image faded out.

She leaned on the railing that overlooked the CIC sitting up straight she pressed the button next to her console that sumoned Gibbs.

"Yes Captain?" He said forming infront of her.

"Give me the ship."

"She's yours." He said and faded away like the admiral.

"To the crew of the Earth, looks like we're going through the relay early. All hands to stations and prepare for a relay jump to the veil. Mr. Self, Haberkorn. Take us away. Williams out."

She stood back as the ship began to hum as the crew frantically moved to their stations. Self made a few key strokes and opened a com-link between him and the bridge.

"Detaching from docking port." The ship lurched forward and thet began to move in the direction of the relay

"Ten minutes out from relay."

Ashley rested her hands on the perch and waited as she heard the elevator doors open and close.

"Ma'am." Liam said as he entered the CIC.

"Comander."

He walked around her perch and stood infront of her with his hands behind his back.

"Gibbs gave me the short version, and the probes beyond the relay suggest that Brenks has traveled pretty deep into the other galaxy."

"We'll be making more stops then him." Ashley said as she walked doen the steps and walked beside Liam and pulled him in the direction of the lab which was under their feet.

"The probes have given us enough info to let us know where to make our first stop. We're calling the planet MRP-1 for now."

Liam shrugged as they entered the lab. He saw Doctor Lawson and DeWitt along with the solarian and asari scientists that were apart of their crew. He had only met Lawson and the Salarians as well as the asari, but he didn't get the chance to meet DeWitt, she had short dark hair that cascaded behind her ears and tickled her neck with blue eyes behind her glasses. She was "Working" with a chimp on one of the tables.

"Captain?"

"Yes comander?"

"Their is a chimpanzee on the table."

"And?" She looked to him as though she thought he knew everything about the ship.

"Nothing." He shook his head forgetting he said anything and followed her into the lab.

Dr. Oriana Lawson approached them. "Captian on deck." She said as she strode to Ashley and Liam. She said it like it was more of a formality then a comand.

"Both officers, to what do I owe the pleasure?" She looked to Liam then Ashley as she waited for a response.

"Are they ready?" Ashely wanted to get straight to the point.

"Oh, yes the PESys. Follow me." They walked through the lab and Liam caught DeWitts eye as he walked past her, she blinked a few times then went back to playing with her chimp. They didn't linger or return to him, she seemed not to care. As he and the Captain past her, ever since Liam was small he had this effect on people some would call it the "Liam effect" he usually could get what he wanted from people which made him a fantastic spy and negotiater. He had of course been told "no" before but he certainly found it weird that he thought it was strange that she didn't even glance or even a small smile. He didn't like to seem self centered or vain but it was just something he was used to.

As they reached the reaserch and developement part of the lab Liam stopped infront of what looked like an armor locker. He folded his arms as it opened and was impressed at the space suit infront of him, but he didn't know why he was down here. Liam was a non-combatant so he just shrugged.

"Nice suits." He said plainly.

Oriana snorted. "Nice? Well I think it deserves a little better than that. The Planetary Exploration Suits are designed to adapt to any enviornment and climate. They are equipped with stealth technology that will make you virtually invisible and when linked to an AI you should be able to map out any planet, classify and identify any organism that you encounter and keeps them in special files in your suits hard drive."

She placed her hand on one of the three and smiled. "Definately my best work so far."

"Ok, you expect me to strap in?" He said turning and pointing to Ashley.

"Yeah, you're to qualified to stay on the ship, that one's yours and we had special ones made for your cousins."

"The N7s, so basically a paint job?"

Lawson shrugged as Liam looked at the black suit with blue trim and some armor plating, the helmet had a large visor that showed the entire face. He nodded and looked to Williams.

"So am I going planet side when we get there?"

"Yep, you're taking DeWitt, Adams, Flint and Lenar. Be sure to let them know so they'll be ready." She walked away and left the lab leaving Liam alone with the scientists in the white-wash lab.

"Wait, Maggie or Ty?"

"Tyler."

He narrowed his eyes at the mention of him. Tyler always messed with Liam when he was younger he always treated him with indifference, probably because he didn't like how Maggie clung to hi, as well as she did Tyler.

He felt a tug on his pants and looked down to see a grinning chimp below him. He reached his hands up for Liam to carry him making wimpering chimp noises, reluctantly Liam held his arms out and the ape climbed onto him. He was furry and warm which wasen't so bad, he even smelled nice.

"Neil!" He saw Dr. DeWitt hurry over and held her arms out for the chimp.

"I'm so sorry comander Darcey It wont happen again." She tried to pry Neil from Liams neck but he hung on tight, hurting Liams neck.

"It's fine, just stop pulling." He gently placed Neil on the ground and he hopped onto DeWitt and hummed softly as he rested his head against the back of hers.

"I don't belive we've met." He said holding out his hand.

"No, we have not, Valorie DeWitt..._Doctor_ Valorie DeWitt." She re-stated.

"Comander Liam Darcey." He said as he shook her hand.

"Well nice to finally meet you comander, if you don't mind I have work to do and prepare for the mission so...yeah." She akwardly stepped away.

Liam watched as she took each step backward then finally turnned around, Neil looked back and waved to him. He returned the gesture after Lawson cleared her throat at him. He looked back a little startled and waited.

"So, I'll have these bad boys ready for you in the hagars' armory." She said as she walked by him.

"And good luck with that one." She said passing him.

He felt something he hadden't in years, his cheek felt flustered and his stomach was lighter than air as he turned back to Valorie. She was tall and thin, she looked like she would blow away in the wind with her slender figure. But she seemed unburdened, curious and strangley inocent, he found her troubling. The only person to make him feel like this was his ex, Jessica from before he met Allyson, Devin and Jason. She left him after his clothes kept smelling like Maras perfume, and he couldn't tell her why. Although Valorie was much different, she seemed pre-occupied with everything else. To busy for him which gave him goose bumps as he passed her again on his way out.

This can't be happening, he thought. Not to me I'm an N5 trained ACIA agent. Trained to control my emotions, well I guess I'm seven years out of Practice. He hung his head as he entered the elevator and waited as it carried him to the hagar where he would embark to a new planet. And all he cared about right then and there was a girl who barely looked at him.


	9. penny for your thoughts

Chapter 8 1/2

* * *

><p>Sylas walked apprehnsively into the med-bay to see alpha Shultz. He still felt guilty for the death of the sheriff and Jacks injuries, he walked in to see three humans asleep in the medical bay beds with Medical chief Rove who was listening to music as she wrote reports. Turnning around on her swivel chair she had a welcoming smile on her face as she saw him and set her cordless headphones on her desk.<p>

"What's wrong with you?" She said standing up.

"Uh, nothing I'm actually here to visit..." Their were three of them and he actually had never seen Jack at any given time and wound up looking lost.

"Is Jack Shutz still here? He's an alpha, so...yeah." His eyes darted back and forth akwardly as he looked around the room for an excuse to leave.

The chief walked over to a bed with a tall human lieing in it, then pointed at him.

"He's sleeping now and lunch is a little ways away." She saw the look on his face.

Turians may have been a little hard to read due to their lack of expression but she could see the concren on his face. Caroline may not have known why he was there but she figured they were friends, so she did the next best thing for him.

"However, you could try and not make any noise and sit by him or wait and come back for lunch...up to you."

She curtiously smiled again as she picked her head phones up and went back to work. Sylas walked over to Jack anyway and pulled up a chair next to him, he read the report at the end of the bed. He was getting out tomarrow, all she had to do was a few last minute checks and the alpha would be good to go. Rapax rocked his head back and forth as he sat there, he looked around to see if anyone was around and then turned back to Shultz. All the guilt he was feeling was still nagging at him and Sylas was affraid it would never go away, he leaned forward close to the sleeping alpha he sighed as he muttered.

"I'm sorry."

Taking in a deep breath and leaning back in the chair he continued.

"I-uh, thought I was invincible. I've reached mach before but not with gravity pulling at anything."

"I know this was basically a hicup for you but...that sheriff died. Maybe you don't care, maybe you want to hit me...I'd deserve it, I neglect my only kid to play hero in the sky."

Sylas chuckled to himself as Jack slept in bed.

"You don't give a shit, you can't hear me." He chuckled again.

"I got this for you, heard you liked candy. But don't tell the doc." He slipped a hersheys bar under his pillow and stood up to leave. He could have sworn he saw Jacks eye-lids flutter slightly but he ignored it and walked on.

**The next day**

Maggie was sitting in the hangar, suited up and ready to go at any moment, Maggie was up against the same wall as the armory. She usually went with Tyler on his missions and never had to worry about him because she had his back and he had hers. Granted she trusted Liam and their was an alpha with them as well but she just felt, helpless as she sat above the planet in a safe ship hangar. She felt a hand on her sholder and stirred slightly as she looked up to see Jean, she brushed her hair back over her ear inviting him to kiss her cheek. He bent down from his towering armored body and gently pecked her cheek before he sat down on the floor beside her. Maggie thought it might make her feel better but not by much.

"Maggie, commet ça va?" He said in his smooth calming voice.

She shrugged and looked over to him as he slid down the wall and touched the floor. She had her feet extended out infront of her with her hands in her lap as she looked around at pilots, engineer and mechanics working on the various fighters and shuttles in the hagar. She decided to learn a little french if she was actually going to persue Jean in a real relationship, she'd have to know a few french phrases and simple dialogue like; 'How are you?'.

"Fine I guess. I'm just a little worried about my brother is all." She admitted.

Jean snickered and then quieted up when she quickly turned to him.

"Something funny?" Raising her eye brows she knew he was playing around but it never hurt to keep a man on his toes.

"No, but the thought of being worried about _your_ brother is a little funny. He seems like a cappable soldier."

Nodding her head in agreement Maggie had a reasuring grinnon her face.

"Yeah I guess you're right, I don't mean to seem like a downer or a nag when it comes to him...but I worry about him all the time, you know? It must sound a little childish." She was trying to talk herself out of worrying and as usual failing.

Jeans face changed from playfull to concerned and leaned forward.

"It's not childish to worry about people you care about. I still worry about my brother and he's dead."

A faint smile crossed his face remembering him. Maggie had look of slight shock mixed with a little bit of akward and embarassment, she was complaining about her very cappable sibling who was still alive and poor Jean lost his brother.

"Oh, I didn't-Jean I'm sorry if-"

"It's alright, it's fine. I don't talk about it much. He was a PMC with me and the other third gen alphas and, uh."

He swallowed hard and ran his gloved finger across his eys and shook his head. Maggie scooted herself over to him and leaned on his sholder. He felt better after that, someone who understood what it was like to have family in the buisness of war. Not many did, but Maggies family had quite the military name, both parents fought in the reaper war. Her mother was recruited under her uncle as a sniper while her father was already a enlisted serviceman. Liam was on the ship and so was aunt Carol, she had more to loose than she thought. Jean _did_ loose his brother however she would never ask how because she had a pretty good guess.

"I really do like you." Jean said as he looked down to her.

She slid her hand to his and sifted her fingers between his and smiled.

"Likewise, You're a hell'va guy Jean Dorian. And it's sexy when you talk." She grinned.

"You're accent Is nice too." He said.

"Ick, mine? Southern american does it for ya?"

He turned resting his chin on her head. "It suits you."

She made a thoughtfull grunt, no one has ever complemented her voice before even though she did it to Jean all the time. They sat there waiting for their friends to come back from the planet below or to go and resucue them. Either way they were going to be there for a while, might as well be together.


	10. All Apologies

Chapter 9

* * *

><p>The shuttle was slient as they left the ship, Liam looked over to his cousin who was sitting next to him and the salarian across from him who was sitting next to Hannah who was in her alpha armor which was basically a more combat effective PESy (Planetary Exploration Suit) She had a narrowed visor instead of a open one like everyone else. Liam looked to Dr. DeWitt who was next to him, she was having trouble with her helmet, it wouldn't snap in place. He reached over and twisted it until he heard the clicking noise.<p>

"Thanks." Valorie sounded more annoyed than greatfull.

"No problem." Nodding his head then turned and faced foreward.

Lenar the solarian was testing his instruments as captain Williams' voice came over their comunication channel. An image of her appeared in the upper left hand corner of his visor looking a little tired.

"Darcey is the team ready?"

"Yes ma'am." He glanced at Val then returned his gaze to the captain.

"You'll be dropped on the western hemisphere of the planet, we need you to do a basic mach up of the landscape since the probes can't send a signal back to us. We think the surface is covered in trees but don't worry too much, Lenar will map it out and Dr. DeWitt will be studying the plant life and collecting samples for the lab."

"And as for me and my less intelectual team mates?"

"Stay out of their way." She winked and seemed to stand straigther. "Good luck, Williams out."

They felt the shuttle enter the atmosphere and heard the pilot tell them to buckle up. Liam switched to radio chat to speak with the others.

"Navigator Lenar and Dr. DeWitt will be the last one off the shuttle and the first ones on, get me?"

"We got you sir!" Hannah and Tyler yelled over the turbulance.

"With all due respect comander, I can handle myself-" Valorie began but was cut off by Liam.

"With all do respect Docotor. You're more important than we are." He rolled his head around trying to get an aching feeling out of his neck and sholders. It had been bothering him for more than a week, no matter what he did he couldn't get the strain out of it.

"Gibbs what about you? ready to explore uncharted territory?"

"All set comander, locked and loaded, all systems go-"

"That's enough of that." Liam said interupting him.

"Five minutes to landing!"

"Four!"

They felt the shuttle balance out at they were brought onto the surface.

"Three."

They felt a gust of wind hit the shuttle pushing it to the side as the pilot brought it down.

"Surface." He said.

Tyler flicked the safety off his gun and was the first one on the surface as Hannah and Liam followed him out, just like Liam said the Doctor and Navagator where the last ones out. They touched the ground and Gibbs imediatly chirpped and appeared on their wrists.

"It seems we've stumbled upon a storm of some sort."

"What kind?" Tyler said as they were finally able to look around.

It was a jungle area with the trees reaching heights over two thousnd ft. above the ground. as they looked up Liam watched as water dripped on his visor, it was a strange transparent orange color that dripped off, he looked around at the vibrant green leaves that had splashes of blue with even some of the dirt being a dull orange. He knelt down and ran his gloved fingers through the dirt, Tyler looked up to the sky and pointed.

"The sky is green." He pointed out, not so much in awe but just to point out the fact that the sky was green. The gusts of wind kept coming and they were becoming a bit of an annoyance when Gibbs appeared in their helmets to explain.

"The trees are so large that the wind just bounces right off of them causing currents on the surface, like a water current only with air." He disappeared from sight and Everyone continued, a little less cautiously now that they knew a storm wasen't going to sweep them up. Just a enormous gust of wind that bended through the trees.

"Fasinating." DeWitt said as she walked with her nose to the ground.

Lenar imediately began usuing geography mapping softwear in his suit that could map out the terrain of over fifty mi. As they began walking through it became very clear that DeWitt was going to hold them up, she stopped at every plant and clump of dirt.

"Uh, you guys take Lenar and keep going I'll watch over Valorie." Liam waved the others forward as he pulled his laser rifle off of his back and loaded it.

Tyler had a look of concern, even though he wore the same combat armor as Hannah Liam still knew what he was thinking. Even under his slim visor he could tell his cousin was apprehensive.

"It's fine my scanners aren't picking up any life aside from plant, or insect."

"You found insects!?" Valorie jumped up and looked to Liam.

He pointed to the ground a few feet away and she walked over to investigate. Tyler shrugged and continued walking with Navagator Lenar.

"We'll follow your trail, leutenant." He nodded to his cousin who accepted Liams plan.

Liam streched out his arms and then rested them on his weapon as he waited for Valorie to finish up her work. She was knelt down examining the dirt and clay that dotted the ground as she stood up and looked at the vials she had placed the samples in Liam began walking forward. He felt the leaves brush his suit on his way to Tyler and the others until he realized that Dr. DeWitt was again bent over on the ground, still analizing insects she found.

He breathed in and heaved a sigh as he walked back, she stood on her knees as she placed the insects in a container on her belt. The wind gusts sounded like giant lungs breathing and some of them felt like it, nearly knocking Liam or Valorie over. Their was however the strange colored rain, but Liam decided not to ask. Well, now what? He thought to himself as he propped up against a tree and slid down to the ground, he looked up at the green foliage that blocked out the sun as water dripped from the leaves tapping him on the sholder. He looked back down and rolled his head to Dr. DeWitt she seemed to be extremely excited by the new world even though it wasen't much different from the ones in the milky way.

"So," He started.

"So?" She responed as she stood up and stepped over his outstreched legs and walked a little futher past him. He stood up and propped himself against another tree, staying alert in case any strange alien monster comes to eat them.

"So, you always wanted to collect plant samples?" He joked as he leaned back against the tree and looked forward to see if the others were still in eye sight.

She pursed her lips letting out air as she answered his question.

"When I was little I wanted to be an astronaut so I got that checkmarked off."

_Strike one_, first thought to come into his mind.

"Good, alright." He muttered as he stood up from the tree.

"We should catch up, Gibbs how are the others?" Liam asked.

"They're fine but I'm pretty fucking bored." His image popped up on his wrist.

"Me too Gibbs, me too." He leaned against the tree with Gibbs on his wrist.

"Comander?" Valroie looked to him.

He felt a rush running under his skin and shifted in his aromor, _keep your head on Darcey._

"Ooh comander, your heart-" Liam shut Gibbs off and he faded away.

"Yeah?" He tried to seem casual.

"May I ask a...frank question?"

"Shoot." He said as they began to follow the others trail.

"Why are you here? Not on the planet, but on the MSV Earth? _Sir, _with all due respect you're a criminal." She tried to dress it up by adding sir but it still felt the same.

_Ow_.

"Well I-"

"You killed a councilor and two Allinace recovery teams."

"Hey, they shot first-and 'recovery' is a fancy word for kill." He defended.

"What about the councilor?" She shot back.

"Look _hun_' it was either kill the batarian councilor who funded Richard Brenks' attack on Earth. And save a city of people-not just humans but aliens too-"

"That's all well and good but-"

"_But_, I did my job to safegaurd Earth and my friends. Did the councilor die in vain? Yes, I wish I didn't pull the trigger ten thousand died because I saw no other way to do my job, but I would kill that four-eyed fuck again if it ment saving ten of those ten thousand, shit. I would have done it for one."

_It's a pop fly to right feild and-oh...well their's always next game._

He lifted his gun, walking ahead of her as she sat there stunned.

Now look what I've done, she thought. Way to make new friends Val, maybe their's a reason your only real friend is a monkey who can't talk and does what you tell him to, and that's only if you feed him first. She kicked at the ground then hurried to follow Liam and the others, which is when she could hear a loud white noise in the distance. She broke into a light jog to catch up with the group and stopped as they were all looking over a cliff, Lenar was letting his legs dangle over the edge as he wrote down notes on his omni-tool. Hannah was leaning on one side with her weapon sholdered as Tyler simply looked around, Liam beckoned her with his left hand to come and see. As she reached them her eyes widened.

"Whoa."

It was a humongous valley with water falls bigger than the ones in Niagra Canada. She watched as large bird creatures flew across the water plucking fish out with their mouths and flying away. A green tinted rainbow was strung out across the landscape as she observed the lush jungle below with its colorfull flowers and large trees that nearly blocked out the sun when you stood under them.

"Gibbs?"

"Yes Dr. DeWitt?"

"Can you take a picture of us?" She asked as the others turned around.

Tylers sholders fell as he took a picture position by Hannah, kneeling down infront of her with his weapon standing straight in his right hand. Adams simply turned around and Lenar swithed himself around smiling as Gibbs floated infront of them. She nudged in next to Lenar only standing and waiting as Liam stood next to her and waited for the flash.

"Everyone say flash!"

No one said a word as Gibbs took the picture and then sent it to everyones omni-tool. Valorie recived the picture and frowned, seeing a pair of bunny ears above her helmet she shook her head as she looked to Liam and hid her smile.

He shrugged looking at her then pulled up his omni-tool contacting the ship.

"Captain, we'd like a shuttle to come pick us up, the scanners where right nothing remarkable except scenary."

"Shuttle on it's way comander."

He sholdered his weapon and sat down with Lenar who had a scetch pad out infront of him.

"What's that?" Liam asked.

"I'm a amatuer artist, comes with the feild of geography. I'm pretty good with lines but the curves of the valley are pissing me off." He had the beginings of a surpressed laugh as he handed Liam his scetch pad.

It was a near perfect rendition of the landscape as he turned to Lenar he handed the drawing back shaking his head.

"Yeah I think you need to do some more shadding."

"Oh yeah? Where?"

"Every where the whole page, shaded. Those were orders, navagator Lenar."

He raised an eye brow then turned back and nodded his head.

"Oh, that was a joke, heheh good one. A little dry for my taste though." Lenar said with a half hearted smile as he returned to his drawing.

Liam saw the shuttle coming through the atmosphere and he stood up, waiting as it flew down to pick them up.

**Back on the ship**

As they stepped out Liam was the first one to exit the shuttle, he had his helmet clipped to his belt and checked his weapon a second time making sure the safety was on. The others piled out and he started giving orders.

"Lenar get the geographical data into the computers and build a compisit map of the area where we were."

"Right away." He nodded as he removed his helmet.

"DeWitt...Do you want help?"

She was struggling with her helmet again, Tyler came up behind her and twisted it off. As she turned around to thank him Liam saw a certian look in his eye as they lingered on eavh other, _maybe she isn't for m_e. He thought to himself as he heard a noise that grew louder he turned around to see the whole deck was clapping as Hannah finally came out of the shuttle. Liam imediately felt better as Felix jogged over and started helpping the others with their gear.

"So, how was it, did you make any new friends?" He joked as the others walked over to the armory Liam stayed to talk with him.

"About what I expected, after we stumbled upon a galactic community last time we did this my expectations were pretty low to say the least."

Felix grinned lightly shoving his sholder. "Any luck with the good doctor?" Felix was a very hard person to hide things from, he was a professional aboserver and profiler and knew Liams tell when he like a woman. Among other things, for example: if he stared at you long enough he could tell you what you ate for breakfast then tell you what you're craving for dinner. All of it based on your personality.

"Not importnat." Liam said brushing him off.

They walked to the aromory together and Liam removed his aromor, he was now standing in a tight body suit that hugged him a little too well. Felix tossed him his uniform and waited as he got changed by his armory locker.

"By the way, I heard she likes ice cream." Felix said as he was waiting for Liam to change.

"Drop it." He grunted.

"I was serious, an you do a terrible Jacob Ryan impression."

Liam paused then turned to him and in a low voice he leaned his head foreward and quietly said.

"Drop it."

"Fine, just trying to help. Oh wait, let me guess-"

"You don't want any-"

"I don't _need_ your help." They said simultaniously.

Felix stood up from the bench that sat across from the lockers and threw his arms in the air.

"See man, that is your problem. You refuse to take anyones help, you know some day you're going to _need_ someones help and you're going to be to thick headed to see it."

He folded his arms and waited. Liam looked back and said the three words that every confident man has used to counter any statment since the dawn of time.

"Are you done?" He waited as Felix nodded his head.

"First off _my way_, as you put it. Has gotten us this far and-" He held up his hand to stop Felix from retorting.

"_And_ it gets the job done because I know better than most, it's why Ryan not only spared my life but yours and the others as well. Shit, we even got promotions."

"Do you hear yourself?" Felix shook his head.

"Comon Felix really, you're questioning me now?" He shook his head as he lifted his shirt over his head.

"I questioned you when we were on the citidel ten years ago, I questioned you when we were on Illium eight years ago. Remember Illium, when we killed the turian black watch to protect a hacker?"

Liam narrowed his eyes and looked to the ground then back up to his friend.

"Liam, I questioned you when you told Mara you loved her."

He swallowed hard and bit his upper lip. Felix kept an even tone, he didn't raise his voice whcih was a little unnerving at times.

"Now, Mara's a big girl and you two worked it out, but what if you can't with the doc, huh? What if it goes so far south-hey I might be wrong, but what if you coming on to her impares her from doing her job?"

"Don't you think I thought about that?" He said as though he gained some sort of ground.

Felix shooking his head sitting back down, slumping onto the bench.

"Look I'm not trying to be a dick or start something, I'm just saying you should play it a little safer."

He stood up taking a wide stride to his XO and friend.

"Because I _pleaded_ with you, not to kill the councilor...pleaded. Liam. Our lives were in your hands."

"I got us out ok didn't I?" He defended.

"At what cost?"

He said stepping back.

"A life on the run? We killed Alliance soldiers. My point is...our opinions matter too, not just yours. But don't let that discourage you from doing your job, because their's no one I'd rather serve under."

Liam had a small grin on his face as he said in, nodding he looked up to his friend. They heard a small scuffle and looked at each other and waited, nothing. They returned to their conversation.

"I'll take your advisement into consideration, serviceman."

Felix saluted and walked away. "Comander."

He left Liam in the locker room who wasen't wearing pants and laughed to himself as he pulled them on. Felix had a point, he was reckless with other peoples lives when he shouldn't be, and not just on missions either. From now on he'd be more cautious, he was the first officer of the ship, _I should be Valories friend-or at least her boss nothing, more_. He thought anout what happened on the planet below, he separated the group just to be alone with her, using his authority to try and get in her pants. He'd never let that happen again, Liam wanted the ship to trust him because if something were to happen to Ashley or she stepped down from comand he would be the one to lead the ship.

"Sup cuz?" Tyler walked by and smacked Liams butt.

"Uh, nothing you?" He said as he buckled his belt.

"Eh, you know me, I think I'm going to spend a few hours in the VR room. If you see Maggie tell her where I am, please."

"Ok, If I see her."

He waited for him to leave the room then a devilish grin passed his lips.

he looked up making sure he had an air of authority when he spoke. "You can come out now."

He heard a faint 'shit' as a door opened from a few feet away, Jean stepped out and Maggie brushed past him. She pulled his face close and Liam glanced away, he cleared his throat and They left the aromory.

"Some where else next time, hm?"

Maggie smiled as she turned around and gave him the bird.

"Your welcome I didn't tell you-know-who!" He called out as they left.

He sighed and stood there, alone. He almost enjoied the silence, revealing in it's comforting embrace. Until Gibbs popped up on his omni-tool and addressed him.

"Comander the captain would like to see you on the CIC. But what ever you do, don't stare at her...boobies." Gibbs giggle as he flickered away from Comander Darcey.

"I am ging to have a long talk with your creators." Liam muttered as he left the armory and walked out onto the hanagar deck.

"Comander on deck!"


	11. Old friends, new problems

Chapter 10

* * *

><p>Being hit by another persons fist is something that will happen to just about anyone. Now the big question is where, see the chest hurts and the stomach is never fun, the sholder dosentcount, pussy. Unless of course you have vroliks syndrom like Joker then anywhere hurts. But there's something about being punched right on the side of your face that stings a little, I mean lets be honest you can try and doge it but when it hits, it hits. Hey, I'm not saying that I'm a tank of invonerability but if you let one good punch slow you down then all is lost for your cause, I can not help you. But when you've been around for over four hundred years you learn a few things, like what the sun-set looks like on Illium or that there is in fact a nice place to eat on Omega. What it feels like to watch someone you love die, to see a galaxy in turmoil and then suddenly find yourself in a better position than you were before.<p>

Either way the bottom line is when a peice of shit turian trys to put his hands on you there's only one real place to settle it, in the ring. And when his boney fist conects with your asari-soft face, you have an obligation to kick his ass.

Mara was thrown back into the ropes after taking the hit, she looked down and saw Allyson cheering her on as others had gathered around to watch the fight between Mara and Desious Hilion (Aquila 0-5; Outlaw) he apparently was know for drinking and domestic violence and was a convicted criminal on three colonies, however since none of it affected his job performance the turian code permitted it and therefore wasen't mentioned on his canidacy file when being slated for the MSV Earth.

Mara turned around just in time to doge his left leg that swung above her head. She used the new ground she had gained thrust her right fist uper-cutting his rib-cage, he grunted as she continuolsy attacked his torso in a volley of punches that seemed to come one after the other. He tried to bring his knee up to jab her but she stepped on his foot and slammed her left palm straight up into his jaw, forcing his head back causing him to fall.

"Outlaw huh? Not so tough to me." Mara spit off to the side as the sour, metalic taste of blood entered her mouth.

She waited for him to get up as his teammates cheered him on, love'em or hate'em one thing turians were was loyal.

"Don't take you eyes off of her, She too fast!" Gravis shouted over the jeers and yelling in the training room. Which was more like a gym that was a sub-deck of the crew quarters.

Outlaw shot back up and they circled each other, Mara agreed not to used her biotics out of sportsmanship. But no one said anything about years of comando training and experiance in the serice gaurd against a piolt who just pushed buttons (Not a jab at military pilots, just to be clear). Mara had it all figured out, first she'd take a desisive step forward crossing her left leg with his since that was his favorite kicking leg. Of course he'd counter attack with his right arm that could be easily deflected, she would then slide her left arm under his left holding the plate under his neck and then continuosly punch him in the face until he gave up. And she'd be to close for the other leg to do anything.

"Sounds good." She muttered.

Step, block, grab, she wailed on his skull-like face and red paint that covered it. Her hand had a spatter of blue blood as she didn't let up until someone called the match. Four rounds of ten minutes each is all it took to beat him to a pulp without biotics and without ITK (Intent To Kill)

"Ma-ra, Ma-ra, Ma-ra!" A loud slow chant echoed the training room as she raised her hands in victory. Her right hand and the left side of her face had turian blood spattered on her light purple skin. It didn't matter though, she taught Desious a lesson; the turian code dosen't apply on a human ship. On a human ship the code of human conduct was simple; Don't be a dick.

Her shower felt like a trophy as the water ran down her body and smacked the floor. She was still breathing hard even though it had been an hour of talking to other people and getting an apology from Desious was a plus. But now all Mara wanted to do was relax.

Of course, that was until the ships alarms went off.

"This is Captain Williams, I want everyone at their stations imediatley!"

The other few who were in the showers with Mara hurried out and quickly dried off. Reluctantly she pushed the shower button and turned it off, as she dried her hair tenticles. She walked over to the mirror and noticed a bruise under her eye and few on her ribbs along with her arms. She poked the swollen tissue bellow her eye and winced as she let out a long breath through her nose.

"Well," She grunted, "shit."

Entering the bridge Ashley sipped coffee out of her thermus as she stepped up to the perch and set it on the console that was attached to it.

"Self, this better be good." She said tapping the intercom button.

"Captain, I'm projecting the image onto the Hub." Haberkorn replied.

Their it was a big, old-looking ship. Just floating above a gas giant that they were passing.

Liam was already on the bridge and walked back to Williams with a look of apprehension.

"I say we scan it, then move on. It's not worth it." He folded his arms looking at the image, It looked almost familiar like he had seen the arcitecture before.

"We vould always blow it up." Gibbs suggested.

"Even better." They both waited for the captain to speak.

"Shit, he warned us. Keep her anchored Self, I know what it is." Ashley walked down from her little comand center and walked up to the central hub in the center of the CIC.

"Who?" Liam asked.

"His name was Javik."

**Twenty years ago**

**Spectre Ashley Williams**

**age 42**

**Persius Veil **

"Here?" Shepard pointed on the star maps three dimentional image in the Normandy's war room.

Ashley was leaning on the railing that surounded the war room watching as Shepard spoke with Javik and his team of young impressionables. They were all gone, the old days of tracking down rouge spectres were done and the old team had gone its separate ways, James was still on board and Of course Cortez and Traynor were as well but Garrus, Tali, Jack, all of them gone. Not dead just elsewhere, although of all the people to return to the Normandy it had to be her.

She remembered boarding the shuttle and James talking about laser weapons that were no where nere perfection (still aren't). She denied even wanting one on the ship but he still brought one, moron.

For a time Ashley worked solely for the spectres going from mission to mission and finally came this little pearl of a memory.

**MSV Earth**

Ashley shook her head and looked to Liam.

"Prep a shuttle and have a team ready in the hangar, Mr. Darcey the ship is yours."

She entered the elavator catching a glympse of Liams face as the doors closed. He looked around and slowly, step by step made his way onto the perch. He snapped his fingers a few times and noticed the crew looking at him.

"What she said."

"All biotic military personel please report to the hangar bay." Gibbs' voice came over the intercom as Maggie was waiting at her staion, and by station it simply ment stand with your team and be ready at all times until the threat level decreases.

She was fumbling with a few straps on her armored space suit and looked up as she saw the captain, she and the others stood at attention. Ashley was already in a armored suit and ready to go, she looked over to Mara who was a former comando and asari spy then told her to follow. The captain had Jason Baker join her as well as the only N7 biotic aboard the ship (Tyler) as well as alpha Dorian.

Cornell LaMont passed Maggie cliping his flightsuit on and headed for the shuttle. He was a little excited, a baording mission was rare and should always be a delacate as possible. He climbed into the cockpit of his shuttle and fastened himself in as his asari counterpart (Jade Kuril) was slouched in the co-pilots seat.

"Get your feet off my dash." He shoved them out of the way as he sat down.

"Sorry Cap'n." She yawned.

"I didn't get any sleep last night." She streched her blue arms out and settled in, in a more professional mannor.

"Well that," He turned to her narrowing his eyes, "Is not my problem, I hope you'll be able to fly."

"Psssh, comon who helpped you doge cerberus over Torsal Nym?" She pointed at herself with two thumbs and then retuned her gaze to the dashboard console.

"Fine, fine."

Ashley entered the shuttle poking her head into the cockpit at LaMont and Kuril.

"Take us away."

"Yes ma'am." They replied.

Jean typically worked with duel laser pistols, because laser weapons packed a hell of a punch. But this time he had to break out the old faithfull. A mean ass shotgun that could blow a hole in a krogan he set it on his back and then loaded his pistols.

Tyler loaded his laser rifle then checked his amps stability through his suits HUD, satisfied he strapped biotic grandaes to his belt and then sat down next to Jean as Jason was loading his single laser pistol and stood by Mara.

"I heard about the fight, you should really learn to use your words."

"Oh Jason, sweet, inocent Jason. Sometimes you've got to knock the machismo right out of a horny turians head."

He sighed as he sat down and placed a earpeice in his left ear and waited as the shuttle took off. Mara couldn't take her eyes off the Alpha suit, it was very impressive. White with blue trim he looked like a white knight ready to swing to the rescue, with his visor glowing in the darkened shuttle. His body looked even bigger with it on, the neck gaurd that drapped on his sholders and cropped up on his chest plate along with the LED lights indicators all over his armor. Jean noticed she was staring and turned his head, she looked away at Jason.

He turned his head back over to Tyler and held up his hand.

"Jean Dorian, I don't think we got a chance to-"

"I know exactly who you are."

"Oh, heh right I almost forgot. You are Margrets brother?"

Tyler scoffed. "Yes, and I'd appreciate it if we kept this a strickly buisness relationship. You and me." He motioned his hand between them.

Jean thought he offended Tyler and foolishly tried to correct himself.

"I'm sorry if it's a little weird that-"

"It's not, Just know that if she crys because of you I'm going to finger paint the walls with your blood."

Nodding Jean simply laughed nervously. "Sounds fair."

"Who said anything anout fair?"

"Cool it Flint." Ashley eyed him as she walked into the holding area of the shuttle. She stood in the middle so all eyes could be on her as she spoke.

"We are entering a derilict prothean survey ship."

Jean spoke up, "Ma'am, aren't we the first ones past the relay?"

"How did you think we found it?" She replied.

He leaned back accepting the answer as she continued.

"Now, no one is sure how or why but there is a collector presence on that ship. Along with reaper tech, however our special source (Javik) says that their are in fact living protheans on these ships."

"Have you found one of these before?" Tyler asked.

Ashley had a look of distain and then nodded. "Yes, I have."

**20 years ago**

"Are we sure their wasen't another way in?" Ashley complained as Shepard, and a young corpral along with herself were using a welding tool to break into the vents. They were out in the void while Javik, a boarding team as well as Miranda and James Vega were waiting in the shuttle.

"According to the wife, nope." Shepard poped open the shaft and pushed the corpral out of the way as junk jettisoned from the ship.

"Speaking of, who's watching Nora?" Ashley said as she and the others glided into the station. They reached the inside and Shepard held up his hand as the others raised their weapons he used a echo location scanner (Which was new at the time) to detect any movement. They relaxed as he sounded the all clear.

"Nora? She'll be fine, she's on a three day feild trip on Mars. It's her first time in space."

"How excited was she?" Ashley asked.

Miranda interjected as the rest of the team entered the station.

"About as excited as I was nervous, I don't think it's safe for ten year-olds to be on Mars." She said checking her sub machine gun.

"Litghten up Miri, Mars is fine."

"It wasen't the last time _Ashley_ was there."

Ash physically laughed at the remark. "I don't think cerberus androids will be a problem, but good point."

"Cut the chatter, were on a delicate mission." Javik said pushing forward.

**MSV Earth, CIC.**

"Delare could you to try again?"

"I did sir, but nothing not even chatter from the shuttle."

Liam had left the comand station and was satnding over Communications officer Delare who was sitting at her station that was off to the side of the perch along with a row of stations that cricled the CIC which was basically like a much larger war room like on the Normandy if that helps your imagination.

"Gibbs anything on the long range scanners?"

"Nothing, _acting_ _captain_ Darcey." He giggled at the acting part.

"Bet you wish you had the real title you cheap knock-off you."

"Gibbs, shh."

The shuttle approached the bottom of the station, Ahsley and the others drifted out of the shuttle. They watched in amazment as Jasom flew into space without a helmet or space suit.

"Well now I know what an angel looks like when it flys." Ashley muttered.

It was like nothing anyone had seen before, his hair moved slightly due to the fact that their was no wind in space. Aside from that he navagated the void perfectly, he stopped infront of the blocked off ventalation shaft and pressed his hand against it.

"You guys might want to stand back." He tried to say then remembered their was nothing for his voice to bounce off of which ment no sound.

He pressed his earpeice and held his hand close to his mouth. "Stand back."

They heard him and they climbed up the side of the station, high enough for it to be safe. And Jason blew the vent into the station.

As they entered the team readied their weapons, Jason held up his hand and a white light lit the shaft. Mara had seen this before and used the echo location on her HUD to check for any hostiles.

"Nothing showing up on my scanners." Jean said.

"Me neither-"

"Don't waste you breath," Ashley said and pushed forward.

Jason felt a strange presence, like Devin was close but it wasn't Devin. He didn't know how to describe it but he felt it, he figured he'd continue on without metioning it until he knew what he was dealing with.

"This place is amazing." Mara said. "Tyler, Jason, do you guys feel the buzzing?"

It was a feeling that biotics were said to have when close to emense element zero levels. Like when Kaiden passed the conduit in Mass effect one. They could feel a buzzing that rattled their teeth.

"Yeah, it's kind of annoying." Tyler commented.

"Jason?"

"Hm? Yeah, weird."

Ashley lead them to the end of the vent shaft, Jean kicked it open and they drifted down into the ship.

"Well gravity's off." He said as he touched the floor.

"Stay alert." Ashley said priming her laser rifle.

They continued down a long dark corridor and stopped at a door.

"Corpral, touch the keypad." Ashley looked to Mara and motioned with the stock of her weapon.

Curiously Mara stepped up and slowly placed her hand above the keypad on the door. It tickled her hand as it glowed green and purple, the door slid open fast enough for her to jump.

"Captain, I'm still not detecting any life signs." Tyler said as he shut the door on his way into the new room.

"Don't expect to just-"

Jason interuppted. "Somethings here and it's not reaper."

Ashley looked at the twenty-seven year old who wasn't even old enough to have been born during the war.

"How-"

"Jason!" A voice called out.

He put his index finger to his lips and looked at the others. They could hear movement in the large room as well as whispers.

"Our father sent me." It was a female voice.

"He's not my father, who are you?"

He heard something that sounded like when someone lit a fire, a hot woosh. He turned around and their she was, firey red hair tied into a bun along with a cerberus combat suit.

"Hello, brother."

All weapons were trained on her. But Jason knew it would be futile, he didn't say anything but he simply tried to access her mind. He felt nothing not even adrenaline, just like Devin this woman was...him.

"Yep, I'm real." She said turning to Ashley.

"They're all dead, and the live one is being put onto a shuttle as we speak." She winked as she burst into a smokey flame and tried to escape. When Jason jumped at her in his white light form. Chasing her through the walls as she had to travel through vents.

"You're good, I see why you're the fav." She jeered as she socked Jason in the jaw when he came through one of the prothean walls. He was knocked back and fell on the ground. He was up in seconds and had trouble detecting her, she seemed to be everywhere and no where at the same time. Truth be told Jason was more annoyed than anything.

Ashley doged another fire ball as fired at the devil woman.

"Damnit! Where is she?!" She said as she and Tyler touched backs and looked around at Mara and Jean who had followed suit. Jean had his arms extended with both pistols out as Mara aimed down the sights of her rifle while Tyler simply fired at anything that moved with his shotgun.

"On the left!" Jean called out.

"No right!" Mara said kneeling down and left a few shot wizz out of her gun.

"Fuck, she's like Jason." Mara realized outloud.

Jason took a few steps back realized his firends were introble, well Mara was definately a friend but the others were important too.

He tried to run though the wall but a fist appeared causing him to hesitate, but he went straight throught the cerberus agents extended fist and caused her to take corporial form and lifted her by the neck plate slamming her into the ground as hard as he could.

"Holy shit." She muttered. "Now I really do see why you're the fav."

She tried to use her powers to escape but as long as Jason had his hands on her she was incapable of using them especially when she was simultaniously fighting the others.

"Where is he?" Jason demanded.

"Brother-"

His eyes lit a bright white and he leaned closer to her with his left hand still on her neck.

"I'm going to ask one more time, where. Is. Brenks."

She rolled her eyes and leaned even closer. "He's not the one you should worry about sugar."

She forced both hands into his stomach and shot him off of her. He hit his head on the wall and he saw dots as she approached him, rubbing her neck she answered her earpeice. Eyeing Jason she spoke.

"Package secure but the Alliance is here, I've got Nova infront of me."

Infuriated by the use of his imprisoned name he lifted himself on all fours.

"My name, is not, Nova!"

Jason flew straight at her as she tried to disapate he again forced her to remain solid and forced her onto a wall, he let loose on her. Giving no mercy he continued to puch her at super speeds, She woud try to get away but he stopped her every time she tried to escaped he would hit her and smoke would fly out from where he hit. He heard an order bark through his earpeice.

"Stand down!"

Ashley bravely grabbed his arm and pulled him off of his sister. She looked at his eyes watching as the light faded and they returned to the blue that they were used to. "Devil woman" was on the floor, unconsious or at least she seemed so.

"Ma'am they-"

"Not another word servicman." She warned him as she looked to Jean and pointed at the girl.

"Were taking her with us."

**Drednaught Jupiter**

Brenks was a little annoyed, he knew she stood no chance against Nova, he was the strongest. He made sure of it for eighteen years. Pepper was twenty, he found her in the terminous systems and told her he could help her find her true origin. He trained her for seven years in secret in hopes that she could surpass the brothers, Thánatos (His name for Devin) maybe but their was no way she could defeat Nova.

He knew that each one represented an aspect of the universe, Nova was life, Thánatos was death and Pepper (or Venus) was passion. He knew there were others and if he could find the one he was looking for, he could remove the council from power and keep the galaxy and the universe under his thumb. Ambiton is a hell of a thing.

"What do we do about Venus sir?"

"Leave her, she's to unpredictable, besides we got what we came for." He brought up his omni-tool and looked at the image of a prothean life-pod in the cargo hold.

**MSV Earth,**

**Cargo hold**

Devin couldn't believe his eyes when he saw her restrained in the cargo hold. She was unconsious with Jason sitting legs folded infront of her. He joined him and they waited. There were soldiers positioned around her and A few others looked on.

Maggie was pretty bored and when Jean told her about another super-human in the cargo hold she couldn't resist. She had removed the top layer of her armor and let it hang off her hips as she walked to the holding area. Tyler was watching from a ways away from the gaurds, eating half a sandwich.

"S'up." She said picking up the other half from a crate he set it on.

"These things are so weird, she was in four places at once." He said not taking his eyes off of Pepper.

"Jeez Ty, I think she's the only girl you've shown intrest in."

"Nuh-uh." He disagreed.

"What, who?" Maggie tapped his sholder with the back of her hand.

"I-uh...not telling."

"Oh-hoho! She's on the ship, No way!" Maggie got excited and turned to him with a look of inturige.

He turned around finally as he finished his sandwich.

"What the hell, I was gonig to eat that."

"I'm hungwy too." She pecked his cheek leaving mustard on his skin she walked over to the gaurds, Ray Hawinks and Jack Shultz.

"Hey, hows the uh...thing?" She peaked around them seeing Jason sitting on the floor and Devin was leaning against the wall.

"Sorry Flint, no one allowed past this point." Ray held his hand out.

She folded her arms finishing Tylers half sandwich and pouted slightly.

"Comon Maggie, you can't be here, we told your brother the same thing." Shultz shrugged.

"Fine, fine." She walked away back to Tyler.

Devin snickered as she reluctantly walked away. He turned back to see Pepper stir as her eyes fluttered.

"Jase-"

"I know."

She tried to lift her hand but found it chained and the other as well (Jasons Idea) Devin stood with his arms folded and noticed the alphas had their guns trained on her. He shook his head, don't they know by now? He thought, that'll only piss her off.

She pulled at her chains then looked at Jason. "Oh, it's you-" She stopped dead when she saw Devin.

"No..." She whispered.

Devin cocked his head. "What?"

"Get away, make him leave."

"Jason, what the-"

"Devin you should go." Deadpan he turned to his brother.

Devin ran his hands through his once again jet black hair, every time he dyed it, it always exponged from his head early and returned to black. He shook his head and stepped toward her and she tried to back away but couldn't.

"No! Get him away!" She screamed.

He leaned down infront of her, Jason tried to warn him.

"Devin, don't do anything rash."

Pepper was physically quaking in fear. "I can see you." She said.

He snorted and nodded, "Of course you can, I'm infront of you."

"Just, don't touch me...ok?" She said.

"Devin just go I'll explain later but right now she is the only way to find Brenks and what we lost on the station."

Devin shook his head then disappeared in thin air in a cloud of black. He found himself back in the lab under the CIC.

"Shit! Devin, please use the door." Valorie had to catch her breath as he sat on the table next to her.

"Sorry doc, I just needed to be here." His head hung low and he swung his legs.

"That's fine, but seriously use the door next time or appear in the corner."

Once she gathered herself, re-adjusting her glasses she smiled at him and place her hands on her hips.

"So, what's up?"

"Nothing just met my new sibling or whatever she is and...whatever, what's up with you?"

"Same except the new sibling part...can I, um, ask you something?" Valorie looked apprehensive as she fumbled with her glasses.

"Sure, we're...friends." He looked at her as if to confirm the statement and she agreed.

"I know this is really unprofestional, but I can't help it."

Devin felt a smile creep up his face at her apprehensive excitement. She continued to fumble with her glasses and set them on the counter, she leaned close to Devin then looked around to see if anyone was watching.

"I think I like Lieutenet Flint." She backed away and sighed as though a weight finally fell off her sholders.

Devin seemed a little disapointed as he slipped off the counter. "Tyler? You like nut-case?"

"Tyler?" She cocked her head back and then scoffed at the idea. "No..."

Devin realized what she ment and then felt more awkward then anything.

"Wait...if not Tyler then...oh." He watched as she nodded slowly, as if to say "get it now?"

"Yeah...Maggies just so, I don't no." She clasped her hands together and then looked at Devin.

"You're not weirded out by that right?" With a forlorn look she hoped he's still be her friend, some guys didn't like being around her but she couldn't help it, the girls were to pretty.

"No, no. You just don't seem like a..." He rubbed the back of his neck trying to find another word.

"Lesbian?" She looked up at him and snickered at how uncomfortable it made him.

"You're fine around Mara."

"Yeah but she's an alien."

"Fair enough." She sighed. "Jean Dorian is a lucky bastered."

Devin nodded. "Yep."

"Those stupid beautiful eyes and that perfect rack." She shuddered slightly and looked at Devin who still seemed a little weirded out.

"Grow up Devin it's 2220-"

"I know it's just funny is all. You're a lot different than you come off." He smiled at her as he leaned on the counter.

"How do I-"

"Introvert."

She sighed nodding as she rubbed the back of her neck. "I know."

He felt Neil tug at his leg and try to climb him, reluctantly Devin lifted him up and placed him on his sholders. The ape started sifting through his hair, Valorie could no longer take him seriously with a ape on his head. She started laughing as Devin looked up at the Ape on his sholders.

"Captain." Liam entered the med bay and found Ashley with a ice pack strapped to her sholder.

"Age Darcey, cant fire a damn gun without throwing my sholder. What is it?"

"Hi Liam, oh sorry, _Comander Darcey_."

His mother said as she entered the room to check on the captain.

Ashley sighed then looked to her XO. "Continue."

"Um, We were able to piggy-back a tracing program on Brenks' ship." He said with confidence.

"Good, tell Self to follow it ASAP."

Liam tried to leave the room before his mom tried to hug him but she caught him trying to leave.

"Mom, I'm a comanding officer."

"Oh comon Liam hug your fucking mom." She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed, he did return the embrace.

"Your father would be so proud, he wouldn't say though. But he'd be proud." She returned to her desk and sat down.

"Now go track down Brenks so we can do our job."

Liam left the room and headed up to the CIC catching Mara on her way up. They rode the elevator slilently as they reached the CIC she smacked his butt on her way down to the tech lab.

"Does no one respect me?" He muttered.

"I know I don't." Gibbs said floating infront of him.

Darcey shook his head and hurried to his station.

"All hands prepare for jump to FTL."

* * *

><p>tried something new with the transitions I hope that didn't bother anyone and if it did let me know. I thought they were alright and I was thinking of implementing them more, your thoughts are appreciated.<p> 


	12. Just in case

**_Chapter 10 1/2_**

* * *

><p>Ever since I was young I couldn't understand why I wasn't like anyone else. I would try so hard but, then I'd think about how much I don't care. At the end of the day I am who I am and I guess that's going to half to be good enough. I thought that the Alliance would give me purpose, if not that then at least a sense of pride, hell my damn sister enslisted the same day as me. I don't know what I'd do without her, she understands me or rather as best as anyone can understand me. As determined as I was in the military she had something I didn't, probably why she's a first lieutenent and I'm a second. I'm better than her and as long as everyone knows I'm the best that's good enough for me, and the N7 that's stitched to all my uniforms and painted on my armor and guns lets people know that I am in fact the best at what I do. But, if I had to take orders from someone I guess their's worse people than Maggie.<p>

I trained with the alphas and held my own, Major Mucurrio made them run for each strike I landed, aw man did that feel good. But in the end, their was aboslutely nothing like the feeling of complete and utter...helplessness? I'm not sure that's the word but When that Omega had his hand on my throat I felt fear for the first time, adrenaline pumping through my veins I had almost embraced I thought how Maggie would react if I died, it's why I haven't killed myself, with the scars on my wrist and the pills in my stomach it's plain to most people that I don't want to live. I don't see a reason to...we lost thirty men and woman during the battle of Torsal, thirty. They all got funerals and some even got medals but why? Why must we senslessly kill eachother, why must I? I have the urge to kill things and I don't care if I do either, what will they do to me?

Hurt me, no. The only reason why I live is because I love my mother, my father and my sister. And the thought of them being torn apart after I die, they actually care about me. How selfish of me to mutilate myself and sit here complaining about not caring, but isn't that in-of-itself caring? Fuck, I'm not going to solve all my problems at breakfast.

Tyler sat in the mess hall eating breakfast, yummy powered eggs and water along with frozen sausage and a jello cup. He finished his jello last because he liked strawberry, he normally ate alone unless Maggie was around but she rarely was. Now that Jean was apart of her life Tyler felt a little secondary, but if their is one thing he has learned is that boyfriends come and go while family stays forever. Not to mention they were the only N7s aboard the ship, their were a few other letter designated soldiers and servicemen with the 7 designation, their were E7 engineers, H7 pilots, a S7 soldier, the K7 super soldiers which every single one was, the 7 for Ks only gos to the augmentated recurits if you recieved alpha conditioning and failed to recieve the augmentation then you lose your designation, instead it becomes a symbolic thing (Poor K6s, they came so far). Which meant most were to intimidated by his N7 status and the fact that he was a registered sociopath.

He stood up and handed his plate to mess sargeant Jenifer Kinman while everyone calls her Jenny Tyler however, does not.

"Mess sargeant."

"Tyler please, just call me Jenny."

"It's Lt. Flint, and thank you for breakfast." He tended to speak deadpan and a little emotionless at times, even though he was a go faker Tyler didn't feel like faking all the damn time and if everyone already knew what he was, then who cares?

Dear god, while I long to be like eveyone else I can't help but realize what cheeze balls these morons are, "Call me Jenny!" no. We are not friends, you perform a much needed service and I appreciate it but christ it dosen't mean you get to make me be your "buddy".

Honestly people make me feel sain. When I watched TV with my sister or parents I felt like I was taking crazy pills (Or maybe they're finally kicking in). Seriously they worship a dead guy on a fucking stick granted, I see the benifits of religion quite clearly, infact I think children should have values thrust upon them to stop them from being bratty or else santa will take you away...wait that's not right.

Anyway, at least they'll believe in something. And _why_ do I have to be nice, because it's nice? No, I am who I am Ive said it once and I'll say it again, nothing will make me change I've tried before. Ugh, since the military personel are usually doing nothing or just training, we're being used as bus boys and free labor, Today they got me standing around in the engineering room waiting for one of those greese monkeys to slip or something.

Regardless I'll do my job better than anyone else because, that's what I do. I'll be down there with some jarhead marine who'll be staring at the female engineers the whole time. I'm no pureist nor am I a man of many morals but abjectification of any gender is rather imature. And unprofessional, and my sister is being fucked by some french baggette almost once a week does in-fact bother me. What ever works for _you_ I guess, I'm just going to assume that relationships on this boat will be "tollerated" maybe not _encouraged _but I'm sure a few one-night-stands will be occuring. and then someone will be offended because they liked that person, blah, blah, blah.

"Lt. Flint, could you hold this please, thank you."

Nora handed him a large tool bag as she hopped over the railing to get to the engine core. While electronic monitoring was how they made sure the Earths eezo core was running they did a manual check once a week. Nora placed her Alliance Engineering Corps hat on as she held her arms out for Tyler to drop the bag.

"You sure you don't need my help?" He called down.

"Well, if you want to make yourself usefull go get Kole and tell him I'm down here."

She mumbled the last bit to herself and then took out a few glow sticks and cracked them on, the Alliance never lights the manual opperating shaft, probably because it's only used once a week. Tyler went to get the quarian but he heard Nora call after him again.

"On second thought, you'll do."

Oh great, now I have to sit there and hand her stuff.

It seems that Tyler was some-what correct Nora needed someone with more strength than her and Tyler was right there, so why bother the other engineers? He had to hold open valves while she tinkerd away at what was inside. It was pretty stuffy in the narrow shaft and it almost reminded him of a trench back on the yagh homeworld. The name of the planet always escaped him, always.

She had removed the top half of her uniform, underneith was a black Alliance-issue tank-top. Due to the dry-stuffy opperating shaft they'd be in, Tyler followed suit and removed his shirt to help her.

"They always send you into the shaft?" He said as they apporached another access valve. He helpped pop it open then Nora crawled in, he poked his head in and watched as she manuvered through the crawl space.

What am I doing, he thought. You're starring, remember people don't like it when you stare.

Oh that's right.

Tyler propped himself against the wall of the shaft and wiped the sweat off his brow as Nora came back out she smiled. She actually had a nice smile when she did, he never noticed before.

"Are you going to just sit there or am I lifting the cover back all by myself?" She rested her hands on her hips with a raised eyebrow when Tyler took the hint. Putting the valve cover back on tight he followed her to the next one. They follwed the same proccedure including the bored N7 sitting outside while Nora did her engine thing.

"A little help Lt. Flint?"

"You _can_ call me Tyler." What?

He said standing up.

"Bring the tools please."

He shrugged and picked up the tool-bag then climbed up the valve, he stopped when he reached Noras feet.

"Well you can't hand them to me from down there." She pressed her back against the secondary shaft and waited as Tyler climbed up to her and to hand her the bag. He was inches from her greesed freckled face and dull green eyes that shined even under the shadow her hat cast. They reminded him of the leaves on the planet he visited a while ago. Soft and kind, not the dull grey pits of dispare that lay under his brow.

"The plasma cutter...please."

Tyler reached down and retrived it.

"Thank you Lt."

"Tyler, you can call me Tyler." He had no idea why he said that. Tyler liked being reffered to by rank, it gave him prestige and purpuse. But it seemed with Nora it didn't matter much...why?

"Fine...Tyler."

"Yes?"

"Do you mind um, you know-"

"Oh-sorry I'll get out of your way." He climbed back down and reached the opperating shaft again and waited for her. She was a odd one-to Tyler anyway, she made him feel strange and different like his stomach was aching but instead it almost felt good.

She hopped out of the valve and he helpped her close it again.

"One more Lieu-Ty." She reached the valve and like clock work he popped it open and she hopped in to check on the ships engine.

"Uh...can you help again, it seems I got a little stuck."

Tyler sighed as he crawled through and found Noras feet, they did the same thing again but this time Tyler caught her with her hair that was tied back in a pony tail caught in a small bind.

"If you could just, help a woman out here that would be great."

He reached over her and found his face even closer than it was before, she didn't have a fruity smell or a strong sent of engine greese. She simply smelled like nothing which of course evening nothing has a scent, like Vanilla he figured it was her hair as he finally unstuck it. Bumping into her agian as he did so.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

He let her out first and then dropped back down as she was packing the tools back up. She helpped him put the valve cover back on and they began walking back the way they came. She kept looking at her omni-tool then would glance at him, when he looked to see if she was starring Shepard would look in the opposite direction. Until she stopped and stared long and hard at her omni-tool then tured to her left and pointed.

"We missed one."

Tyler turned around groaning. "Whe-"

He was interuppted halfway by Noras lips, she leaned into him and felt him begin to lean back when she parted from him. They stood infront of each other, Tyler was in minor shock at what had happened.

I think I liked that, better make sure...just in case.

He took a step forward and wrapped his arms around her holding her close as they pressed against each other he found himself enjoying this. Her hat bent down into his face and she tossed it asside. Pushing him to the wall Nora removed her tank-top and hopped onto Tyler as he pushed her against the hot, dry operating shaft wall. She had a pretty smile when she did, and he was seeing it under a whole new light as she unbuckled his pants he moved his mouth down to her neck causing her to cringe as he entered her.

**Lt. M, Flint: What?! he was actually starring at you?**

**E. N, Shepard: Yeah and hes got his shirt off and everything, and damn it there's an oportunity here. what do I do? :/**

**Lt. M, Flint: He's not going to make a move so youve got 2 do it 4 him ;)**

**E. N, Shepard: What if he gets mad?**

**Lt. M, Flint: just don't give him anything to be mad at...Hint, hint. ;)**

**E. N, Shepard: ...**


	13. The only easy day

**Chapter 11**

* * *

><p>The last thing Captain Ashley Williams needed was another anomoly. It had been two days since the derilict prothean station and the red woman (Pepper) was moved to the tech lab, which worried her more than anything. She finally let Devin be within four feet of her, and Jason tries to be civil but, they didn't start out on the best of terms he and she. Pepper was a bit of a trouble maker the first thing the crew learned quick about her was her affect over men, poor Shultz and Hawkins found themselves unconsious as she made an escape attempt. So now she's accompanied by an all female gaurd detail and survalence, fortunately she seemed to have no effect on Devin or Jason.<p>

Ashley did however see how Dr. DeWitt looked at her when they brought Pepper to Dr. Lawson for testing, nothing invasive just what they've been doing to the brothers. Ashely figured that Miss Peppers little parlor trick would only work if she wanted it to, that it wasn't a passing thing that invaded peoples minds on a whim.

Lawsons personal log:

"I have seen a lot of things in my lifetime but what ever these people are, are simply remarkable. Now that I have Pepper to gather more data from, I've come to the conclution that they each represent something, Pepper said they weren't related infact the girl wants nothing to do with the brothers. However she feels comfortable with Jason much more than Devin who has been nothing but kind to her. However, Devin seems to understand this and almost accepts it I still don't understand why they are conformed to human bodies and seem to play by our rules or rather the rules of the universe. He is patient yet sometimes is unpredidctalbe and is prone to self loathing. He sometimes makes big mistakes that constantly bring him down even now with Pepper he hates himself for scaring her. But he always feels better when he is around Jason he welcomes him without wanting to be him."

She paused to write in her notebook, _update subject: Hades. _

"As for Jason...he remains calm, cool and collected at all times, although he is prone to emotional outbursts. He appears more athletic than Devin, he had little patients and acted without telling others, after reading the reports on the Prothean ship the Captain states that Baker .J, acted without permission in capturing the subject. He also seems to have boundry issues, not so much with touching people he just appears places without telling people which almost caused one of the engineers to vent the core. however with all his social inequities he is very wise spending eight to ten hours in meditation a day."

She wrote in her notebook again, _update subject: Zues. _

She moved over to Pepper who was lieing on a table while an asari scientist stood over her and ran a basic check-up. The asari were very generous when it came to recruits considering their life spans and the fact that the asari ship (MSV Thessia) was given a ten year mission instead of five. However they do have very few aliens aboard, no salarians though, none volonteered.

Jason was sitting on the floor legs crossed while Devin was on a counter following Jasons lead in trying to remain calm, cool and collected. Devin watched as they asked Pepper to stand up, Jasons eyes remained closed throughout the process.

"Ok, Miss...Pepper. If you could please follow us to the VR room, and you'll get to blow things up." Said the asari scientist Loran as she asked the gaurds to help escort her to the VR room.

"Fine." Pepper agreed.

As they walked past a few other work stations Valorie called Devin over, he rolled his eyes as he reached her.

"So who's the fire chick?"

"Damned if I know, Doc Lawson wont say a thing, and neither will her tight lipped assistant."

"Did they try the same tests I ran on you?" She asked as she began cleaning instruments.

"Well, they didn't use any needles." He joked as he bent down to shake neils hand.

"Why do you have a chimpanzee anyway?"

"I asked if I could, and they said yes." Valorie shrugged as though the answer was obvious.

Devin stood up, "Fair enough."

"You here about _femshep_ and the _crazy_ Flint?." She leaned over to him.

"Those are the _worst_ nick-names ever. But no, what about them?"

She smiled as she finished up with her cleaning and turned to Devin.

"Well I heard from Engineer Dennings, she said that they had sex in the manual opperating shaft of the drive core."

She giggled slightly, "Do you think both Flints like it hot and sweaty?"

"Stop, stop right there," He had to get the mental image out of his head before he continued.

"And last time I checked, Maggie dosen't swing that way." Devin reminded her, although he did feel his cheeks begin to heat up.

"Give it time, they always do." Valorie winked and went back to work, Devin stood there and again looked her up and down before he decided to leave, she was small, about 5'5 and thin. Real thin, her hair was short and it was usually drapped behind her ears or laying gently on the sides of her glasses. He wasn't interested but he figured their had to be a guy, maybe two? Didn't really matter in the end.

"But, Nora and Tyler?" He couldn't belive that Tyler Flint the coldest killer on the ship was able to rope in one of the nicest woman he ever met.

"I know right? She's a little older but only by like, ten years not like it'd matter though. I would so bang the captain."

She smiled as though it were an opption, and Devin got a laugh out of it of course so he walked around her work station and leaned on the counter poking at her little experiaments, they sat there talking for the rest of the afternoon.

Maggie was picking away at her guitar in the rec-room that was a sub deck below the crews quarters. It was interesting because their was a opening above her so when the crew walked by they could see down to the rec-room and call people up if need be. Maggie was getting into a decent groove when she saw Jean walk in, he smiled and approached her.

"Bon jour, and how are we today?"

"Mmm, alright. Just killing time." She felt his hand move around her arm and she shifted away.

"Ahem, I'm in the middle of something." She reminded him while still keeping a smile on her face.

"Oh sorry." He chuckled as he looked around the room, mostly marines and military personel with a few of the ships crew walking around. But all-in all the last few days were pretty boring, they catalogued three gas giants and the navagators had them stay in one place for three hours so they could properly map out the galactic landscape (Or lack there of).

"Doing anything later?" He asked.

"Lunch." She responded without looking up.

Jean walked around and kneeled infront of her, as an alpha he was almost at eye-level with her.

"Are you ok? You seem distant."

Maggie represed a huff before she looked up and smirked. "I'm fine."

"Want me to leave you alone." He grinned.

"Please?"

Jean stood up and walked over to play cards with some of the marines and left Maggie to her strumming. Across the room and just above was Mara and Allyson who were enjoying luch while swapping war stories.

"Holy shit, no this is why I hate the Alliance brass." Mara began after recovering from a deep laughter.

"Whew ok, so we're on sur'kesh right? And we got reapers out the ass, I mean the guy next to me ran out of amunition in the first thirty minutes. That should paint a lovely picture."

"Yeah, get to the good part." Allyson coaxed as she finished her water.

"Alright I'm getting there, hold on. So we've got the low ground and reapers are firing from up top. So dumbass two feet away from me who thinks he's tough shit cause he has the vangaurd implants, fuck-ing charged across the facility and starts fighting the hoard of enemies by himself."

"Jesus, what happened?"

"I tell you what happened. The Alliance wanted us to escort a damn drone all the way to extraction!"

Allyson burst laughing before Mara could finish.

"Wow, so what happened to hero-boy?"

Mara paused for a momment. "He, uh-he died." She said nodding her head back and forth.

"Damn."

"You're lucky you didn't have to go through all that shit." Mara said.

"We didn't know which day was going to be our last, must have bonded with four different species."

"Slut."

Mara snorted after she took a gulp of water and tried to stop herself from laughing, but Allysons face kept her going until a drop fell from her nose, she swollowed hard and proceeded to sliently heave as she wiped her face.

"Am...not." She wiped a tear from her eye.

"Four different species? That means multiple of the same I assume?" Allyson emphasied.

"Yep, let see their was the turian captain; male and the human tank operator; female, and-"

"I don't want to know." snickered Allyson.

"Oh, I forgot. You're a good girl." She put good in quotation marks.

"Hey I've been laid, but only by two different people." Allyson almost had a hint of pride.

"They were during the war thank you very much, post war I think I only slept with Liam...I think."

"You know he was a newborn during the war right?" Allyson pointed out.

"Listen, when you're four hundred and fifty six and still have another six hundred years in you, age is litterally a number."

"Fair enough." Allyson said as she stood up.

Comander Darcey was standing in the CIC going over a data pad while the rest of the crew went about their buisness. One thing he did enjoy about deep-space missions and the longevity of them, was the fact that formality was almost non-existant. Uniforms were barely up to code as the hair code that some male crewmen were starting to forget. Not to mention all the rumors of relationships and crewman having sex in the manual operating shaft of the drive core. Liam had a short beard but that was as far as he'd take it, but he himself was guilty of not following the dress code. Being former ACIA he was used to a suit and tie but now her wore the black Alliance dry-fit Ts and the standard military pants with spit-shined boots and all.

"Comander, we are approaching the drop site." Chimed Self.

"Good, steady as she goes Selfy."

"Aye-aye." Replied the ships pilot.

They had to fly back to the Master relay to wait for a supply drop and then take stock before they could move on to the next system for which they did find another relay the day before, the system the were in got a human name since there no inhabitants and the humans were the first to vist it. They called it Unum which is the number one in Latin, Liam waited as the hum of the engines slowed and they reached the drop zone.

"Darcey." Ashley aknwoledged as she walked by.

"Captain, we're in posititon for the supply drop."

"I know, keep her anchored for a while Selfy I'm holding an officers meeting in the breifing room."

The briefing room was above the CIC and a ways under the Captains cabin. Ashley waited as the ships officers walked in and took their seats, a few stood and waited as they were adressed by the captain.

"This meeting will be relitively brief because of the urgency and a few words on _policy_."

Ashley said as she brought up her omni-tool and operated thhe projecter in the center of the breifing table.

"The urgent matter is, three systems away the exploration ship Thessia has sent their emergency beacon that was picked up at about 02:00 yesterday. The others are to far out into the new Galaxy and we have been asked to find them."

Major Murcurio sat up in his chair and spoke.

"Did we recieve any verbal transmissions?"

"Gibbs, bring it up." Ashley called as she leaned on the table.

"No one ever says please on this ship." He said as the transmission loaded on the central projecter.

"This is MSV Thessia, we...Requesting aditional reinfor...We..re not...alon...I repeat..we are no...alone."

The others all looked at each other with mixed feelings, not alone? This could be good or bad depending on the tone of the messege which could barely be made out. Since there were no comunication bueys everything had to be done ship-to-ship, thankfully the Normandys revolutionary comunication systems helpped a lot but in a new galaxy tran-systems comunications were hard to push through. It's why the exploration ships were built to near drednaught strength and had enough military personel to storm any beach nessesary.

"So what's our first move? Aquila can be wheels up minutes." Suggested Gravis.

"Good, we'll send a scouting party and a small squad through the relay and investigate."

"Good thing we have a small cruiser in the hold." Mentioned Liam.

The others turned to him.

"Send me and a team through the relay, it'll save time." He said.

Ashley shook her head. "No it's too dangerous."

"Comon I only need twenty people to fill it." He protested.

"And t has better comunications than a turian fighter." He added.

His case was sound but risking the ships XO was a little much, nothing they haven't done before though.

Ashley weighed her option and sighed. "Fine, but only twenty." She said.

Liam nodded and waited as she then addressed the _policy_ issue.

"Now, I've heard some things going on, on my ship that seem like less than the Alliance standard, if you want to cut uniform regs that's one thing. But make sure you tell the gallent men and women under your comand to keep it in their pants...please. And I want all relationships of the...romantic nature."

They were doing their best to conceal smiles except a few of the more senior officers who were just too old to keep it in or just plain didn't care about the consequences.

"-To be brought to my attention, their will be no emotional distractions. I can't even remember all the times on the Normandy where I found a crying girl because her boyfriend broke up with her." She shook her head and then waved her hand in the air.

"Dismissed."

Maggie being the highest ranking N7 on the ship had to attened and was caught by Liam on her way out.

"You coming?" He asked.

"Fine, I'd suggest the geth engineer Quib and the quarian if you can get him."

She said as she then made her desitnation the cargo hold for a quick trip to the armory. Liam was more than a little excited, he could finally captain a ship again nothing to grand but a small cruiser named after the Earths lone moon and a handfull of some damn good servicemen ment that Liam Darcey; smuggler and space pirate was metaphorically back in action. He just couldn't believe Captain Williams went for it it's extremly dangerous and they could very well all die or start the first outer galactic war. That being said he'd definately need some old as well as new faces by his side.

Captain Cornell LaMont was waiting in the Lunas cockpit, the name given to the small curiser that lay in a cargo hold beneath the hangar. While Jade Kuril was outside doing flight checks with the engineers that were chosen for the mission.

"No, the power levels should be at an even 5.3" Nora protested.

"Correct, however if you wish to sustain flight during combat the core levels must be pushed to a slightly above 6.2 average."

Retorted Quib vas Ranoch. A geth unit who was requested for the mission.

"Yeah, in combat. But if you keep it at 6.2 a curiser like this will burn it's fuel inside seven hours, I don't know about you but I'm pretty sure we'll be gone longer than seven hours."

"You have no way of-"

"Always prepare for the worst." Nora corssed her arms and waited for the geth to retort.

"Your logic is sound." Said the geths deadpan voice.

Nora began to walk into the cruiser through the loading ramp passing a very large krogan holding a nearly equally large weapon in his left hand as he smoked a cigar. He blew smoke as he turned around and saw her, tapping it on his gun an letting the spent tobacco crumble to the ground.

"Human." He grunted and then sniffed as he placed the smoke back between his teeth.

"Krogan." She sarcasitcally responded.

She couldn't tell if he was smiling or not so she just walked past him as she placed her her hat firmly on her head. She reached her work station and booted up the console, rubbing her forearms together as she felt a chill in the air. The sub decks were always colder which was a pain when you worked them, not to mention the climate control on these small cruisers. She felt something being pressed against her sholders she touched her left and found a jacket being drapped on her sholders, a jacket with a N7 logo. Turning around she saw Tyler looking at her, he had a soft smile on his face, he had a nice smile when he did.

"Hey." He said in his deep almost raspy voice that reminded her of a grundge band singer, a voice that seemed to sound kind when he spoke to her.

"Hey yourself." Nora nervously shot back.

"Uh-Thanks...for the jacket it's pretty cold in here." They hadden't gotten the chance to speak after what happened in the operating shaft(the day before). The fact that he offered his jacket was a good sign.

He shrugged. "I grew up in canada for the most part, this is actually comfortable for me."

"Oh? Then the operating shaft must have been hell." She joked.

"Well that last part wasen't so bad." He cleared his throat glancing sideways.

"Really-uh I mean..." She surpressed a smile as she blushed.

Tyler took a step closer to her, taking in her dull green eyes he hesitated slightly causing her to as well, but they both leaned into eachother and he felt her cold lips press against his. When they parted she stepped back clasping her hands.

"So-"

"So." Tyler rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke.

"I guess the fact that you didn't hit me after means..."

"Means..." Nora zipped up thr N7 jacket silently, standing before him she had a grinn under her hat as she looked up at him.

"Alright then." Tyler breathed.

"Sounds good to me, now if you don't mind. We do have jobs." She turned around and went back to the ships drive core.

"Liam, this dosen't exactly scream safety." Mara said as she ducked her head into the the cockpit with Liam and LaMont.

He turned around arms falling to his hips. "Don't worry your purple, tentically head. We'll be fine, we've got more than enough military personel plus a few non-military and we've got these two _ace_ pilots, right?"

He peered down at Cornell as he recived confirmation that the engines were online.

"Right, sir." He spat out.

"What he ment to say was, we're the best flight crew in the Alliance." Jade spun around in her chair, seeing Mara she sent a wink her way that wasn't recived.

"Fine, but why is it that you always rope me into your dangerous situations, hm?"

"Why do you never turn them down?"

"Well...someone has to look after your dumbass."

"But you _are_ looking at my ass."

He smirked as he nudged her with his sholder on his way to the locker rooms. Yep, Liam certainly felt like he was let off the leash. Even if it were for a single mission, he had the yoke of the boat, not someone else Liam could do things his way again, without anyone holding him back. In the locker room was Allyson and a few of the other marines who were preparing for the worst. He poked his head in then moved on to the stairs that led into the cargo hold, on the loading ramp was Captain Williams.

"Comander." Her eyes narrowed with a smile as he walked down to see her.

"Ma'am," He saw the look on her face, coaxing him to try and reasure her.

"Williams, I'm not going to let anything happen to these people. I've flown a ship like this before and I know what I'm doing, we have our mission and we'll send a beacon as soon as we find _anything_."

She pressed her lips together and stepped towards him placing a hand on his sholder.

"Gaurd your roving thoughts with a jealous care, for speach is but but the dialer of thoughts, and every fool can plainly read in your words what is the hour of your thoughts."

She patted his sholder when she reached the bottom of the ramp Liam watched as she stood there as it closed.

"Good luck!" She called.

"Same to you!" He replied as the ramp shut, "Same to you."

_And every fool can plainly read in your words what is the hour of your thoughts_.

The words haunted him as he reached the cockpit once again and watched as the ship was raised to the hangar. Maybe Liam was a little too eager to carry out the mission, he didn't realize how much he liked living on the fringes of space, day-by-day. But in all honesty this was better, for everyone while Liam did love space travel and working on the ship. He was trained to work alone, the ACIA didn't make team players they made efficient spies and special operatives who could work alone in deep space for extended periods of time. He had to learn leadership through the seven years on the Ostrich, which required him to do something he never truely had to do: grow up.

"Sir, what are you doing?" LaMont leaned to the side as Liam streched over the console and sweft his hands over the bright keys.

"Here are the coardinates of the emergency broadcast I expect to be there within two hours, understood?"

"Yes sir, it shouldn't take long if we boost the FTL."

"Do what you have to, if we're lucky it's a false alarm and the asari can give us a lift back to the Earth."

Liam left the cockpit and headed to the small kitchen area that was in the middle of the ship. It was to small for an elevator so the ship had a few stair cases that linked it together. He decided to wait at the table and fall asleep in one of the chairs.

"Ooh, crap." Valorie was assisting a medic set up in the med bay. He was a good doctor and served four years in the Marines until he lost his leg. Joshua Martinez, a fourty year old doctor who worked under Liams mother on the Earth.

"What?" Josh asked as he moved a case of medigel into a cabnet.

"Their is absolutely nothing in this room that can help me in any way, shape, or form. Except that micro scope, that might actually be usefull however I don't see a single slide."

Josh chuckled as he found some bandiges. "Yeah, I supose real scientific study was probably the last thing on the list for a military ship."

"Well you'd think they would care about the needs of the person who can help them understand what's happening out here."

He turned his head watching as she rumaged through a box of medical suplies.

"What is happening out here?" He asked, thoughtfully.

Valorie cocked her head. "I know and understand phyisics very well. As well as space itself which by the way is all relitivity. Who knows what lies beyond our Galaxy or this one. But so far the basic rules of the universe apply to everything and everyone in it."

"What if we find a place where our rules don't apply?" He retorted.

"They're not our rules. For lack of a better term; they're gods rules."

He nodded his head and thought a moment. "Do you believe in God?"

She parted her lips to answer but Maggie stepped into the med bay interuppting her.

"Can I get some help? I just sliced my hand on a fucking engine part, I don't even know what it's called. Nora or the geth could tell you but...ow."

Her hand was cut open from her below her index fonger accross her palm. Valorie gave her a bandage to stop the bleeding as Dr. Martinez found a needle and stiches.

"Sit down please." He asked her.

Maggie sat down as Valorie let go of her hand letting Josh stich Maggie up. She glanced at Valorie and found herself staring, her soft yet stunning grey eyes that must have seen so much.

"My name's Maggie, or Lt. Flint if you're a formal type." She smirked, Valorie was a little turned on by her soft southern american accent.

"Uh-DeWitt, Valorie DeWitt. Nice to finally meet you Maggie."

"Finally?" She winced as Martinez pulled the needle through her hand.

"Well...I just have heard a lot about you...from the others on the ship. So yeah...finally."

She looked away and around the room, the medical bay in the Earth had windows so people could see inside but this one was closed off. It almost made her feel clostrophobic, she turned back to Maggie who was focused on her hand.

"What have you heard?" She asked.

"Just some random stories from the crew, you being an N7 makes you pretty hard to approach...so."

"I'm not as hard to approach as my brother...Ow." Maggie sat back as she winced again.

"True, I heard you're with one of the alphas." Valorie bit her upper lip wishing she could take it back.

"Yeah Jean Dorian, he's really great. Dosen't mind cuddling for to long, which is nice when we finally get alone time, with our shit schedules it's nice to curl up with someone after a long day. He leaves me alone when I ask him to, surprising that most guys get offended by that or worried or worse, they don't leave."

Valorie sighed as she dangled her legs from one of the beds, she just wanted to lay down now. It didn't matter much anyway it's not like she really knew Maggie or actually cared about her more than her physical apperance. That's what she told herself anyway, Maggies hand was almost finished as Josh was a little more than half way done.

"Psst, between us girls. If you're going to hook up with a guy on this ship. Make it an alpha, best sex of my life."

Valorie thought of the female alpha Hannah, she was blonde, fit, and probably went both ways judging by how she acts during her off hours. No, not for me thought Valorie as she smiled an nodded at Maggies "advice" which couldn't have been further from helpfull. Frank was to old, Jack was an ass, Ray had a mustache...no, Jean was sort-of actractive and Hannah was do-able.

"Thanks Doc, will I be operational for when we reach the distress call?" Maggie asked as he bandaged her hand.

"I don't see why not, are you left handed?"

"No."

"Then you should be fine, if not I can always re-stitch it but I wouldn't recomened that because I'd have to take the old ones out and that means more pain for you. So until then take some medigel for the pain and you'll be fine." He smiled as he gave her a pack of medigel.

"Thank you agian, Nice meeting you by the way, you too Val."

She left the room tieing her hair up before the doors shut, Valorie felt tired all of a sudden. She just wanted to lie down so she did Martinez went back to work after he cleaned up Maggies blood. He saw Valorie dozing off and then looked back at the door thinking about how she acted around Lt. Flint, he let out a breathy sigh as he went back to work.

Flight Captain LaMont was woken from his doze by Jade when she tapped him on the sholder.

"Corny, Corny...Wake up dumbass!"

LaMont jumped up and saw a light blue face upside down above his. Jade was leaning over his seat and pushed off when he woke up, she walked around him as he stirred and sat up straight.

"Corny?" He asked.

"You know like Cornell but minus the 'ell. Anyways Captain sleepy looks like we're about to drop out of the relay jump so you might want to take control of the ship again, unless you want me to do it?" She turned to him with an eagar smile as Cornell shook his head.

"No, how about you go get the comander and bring him up to the bridge with us. And maybe you can fly."

"Yes!" She stood up again and left the cockpit, she hopped down the stairs and found the comander sleeping with his head on the table. She flicked a biotic feild to push him as she entered the room which caused him to jolt up.

"Fuck! Oh...it's you, what's up?" He leaned back wiping drool from his mouth.

"We're coming out of the relay jump sir-"

They felt the ship jolt but not as if it left a relay, more like they hit a adteroid and if that were the case Liam would have a few words with the _ace_ pilot Cornell LaMont.

"This is Flight Captain LaMont, we are under attack!"

Liam knocked his chair over as he ran to the bridge nearly knocking Kuril down as well. They reached LaMont and Liam could see the MSV Thessia as it was under attack by a foreign looking ship.

"This...is the MSV Thessia...I repeat we are under attack!" Their transmission was coming in more clearly now as they flew closer.

"Orders sir?" LaMont said as he brought the Luna closer.

Liam saw a ship he would classify as a frigate, as well as two cruiser class ships gunning for the Thessia along with some strange looking fighters. The Thessia had recived heavy damage and had two visible fires as it fought above an unamed planet. Liam had LaMont bring the Luna closer to the battle.

"Shields up, weapons primed. I don't want one of them to sneek up on us, also LaMont send the distress signal to the Earth." He ordered.

"Yes sir."

"Can we hail the Thessia?" Liam asked.

Jade glided over the console keys working fast as her peoples flagship was on the line.

"Yes sir, hailing them now."

"Thank the Goddess it's the Alliance, Can you help us?"

"We can sure try." Replied Liam, "Can I speek to your Captain?"

"This is Captain Fae, where's the Earth?" She asked.

The Luna had come under attack from one of the fighters, LaMont jerked the ship in a downward arc to doge the enemy fire. Liam lost his balance, grabing the back of Kuirls seat he stabalized himself.

"Sorry, sir-"

"You're fine, keep us safe." Liam turned his attention back to the Thessias captain.

"The Earth is on it's way but it will take time."

"How much?" She asked.

Liam looked to Jade as she checked the star charts for how long it took them, she had to take into account how large the ship was in compared to the Luna and how fast they responded to the beacon.

"Could be hours sir." She said.

Liam nodded and pressed the transmission button.

"An hour, two at the most."

"Goddess...that will have to do." She said as the transmission ended.

The fighter that chased them was brought down by an asari squadron as it flew around e Luna. The fighters were new for the asari they typically didn't put much funding or time into their military because of their age, since one asari can serve for hundreds of years they normally train special ops or build bigger ships to over power other. However after the reaper war they realized the reason The homeworld fell so quickly as opposed to Palevan or even Sur'Kesh was because they lacked a sizable fleet. The war doctrines that once binded they council races were ratafied and the only race that hasent improved it's fleet is the turians who are still rebuilding after 38 years.

Captain Fae looked up from the transmission monitor as one of the crewmen called her name.

"Captain, we've got more incoming vessels."

"Reinforments?"

"No, from the planet."

Liam saw a tower-like ship break through the atmosphere of the planet, they imediately started firing on the ships that were attacking the Thessia and Luna. One of the enemy curisers broke off the main attack and headed for the Spire-ship.

"Shit we've been locked on to." LaMont warned.

"Evasive manuvers!" Liam shouted.

"No, I was just going to sit here and let them kill us." LaMont wiped sweat from his forhead and had the ship pulled straight up into the black.

But they were hit regaurdless, the ship rattled as the engines were hit.

"Uh-oh." Jade said.

"What uh-oh?" Liam asked as he felt the ship jerk.

"This is engineer Shepard, we've lost all power to the engines, I repeat all power to the engines is lost! Switching to emergency thrusters!"

"That." Jade warned.

Liam pointed to the planet below. "I don't care if we crash, just get us into that atmo!"

"Yes sir!"

The one thing about loosing your engines in space is that you keep moving until you hit something. All LaMont had to do was point the ship at the unamed planet and wait, thankfully the emergency thruster power would get them there faster.

"All hands prepare for crash, be ready to bail-out!" Liam shouted over the intercom.

Cornell and Jade turned to him as he ran back down to the lockers. He found everyone else down there preparing to jump when they hit the atmosphere, the ship wouldn't be able to land and with the drive core spent the sheild power went all to the engines.

Valorie followed Doctor Martinez down to the locker rooms and had a enviro-suit tossed at her from Liam.

"Suit up Doc, were jumping ship." He handed one to Joshua as well.

"You two and engineer Shepard will be attacked to one of us when we breach the atmosphere. The geth however, convieniently dosen't require a chute. Oh, and we've got ten minutes so hurry up."

The Marines and military personel were waiting in the cargo hold when She finally snapped her helmet on, Gibbs' interface flashed before her eyes as she followed Martinez and Shepard down into the cargo hold. Nora was hooked up to Tyler and Martinez hurried to Allyson who was waiting for them and Liam grabbed her arm.

"No time to be choosy DeWitt." He said as he latched her onto the foront of his suit.

The Krogan had a special chute as did Allyson and Jack the two alphas on board. The ship Jerked as they hit the planets atmosphere, Valorie fell over and brought Liam down ontop of her, She smacked her nose right up against the helmets visor.

"Fuck!" She yelled, the Krogan; Jurdon Krex haulled them up with a single grunt and brought them back on their feet.

Valorie saw blood on her visor and cursed again, Gibbs' voice came over her helmet.

"Your nose appears to be broken." He stated.

"No shit." Valorie tried to sift her hand up through the enviro-suit but Liam caught it.

"I know it hurts, but hold on if you do that you might risk breaking your arm when I pull the chute."

LaMont had Gibbs prepare them for the jump as Luna gained more speed, he couldn't stabalize her, he was doing everything he could, thankfully he and Jade had their flight suits on and were prepared to jump ship with the rest.

"Gibbs!"

"Yes Captain LaMont?"

"Secure me and Airmen Kuril."

He felt the retraints slip around him as Jade turned to Jade he said,

"I'm sorry." LaMont hit her eject button and the windows infront of them blew out Jade turned to him.

"What have you done? no!" She shouted as her seat shot forward.

She twirled in the air attached to her seat, she could hear Gibbs counting in her helmet.

"fifteen thousand feet, ten."

She heard the wind blast as it pushed her around in her chair. She had to balance herself out as she waited to reach at least five thousand feet. Jade finally balanced out at six thounsand and was able to slow down slightly as she hit five thousand she pulled the chute. She felt it catch the wind and hoist her up as it began to decrease slower in altitude. She could now see the others as they fell to the ground as well as Luna as it past her from a few hundred yards away. She saw that they were in a mountain area, Jade counted five as she floated down, she then saw one of the crew falling planetside fast.

"Cornell." She muttered her team mates name as she watched the Luna crash onto the surface, the explosion was stalled as she watched it engullfed in flame she said a quick prayer to his God.

"Liam!?" Valorie shouted as the blood from her nose receeded back up slowly.

"Hang on!"

"Anytime now!"

"Gibbs!" He shouted.

"You're parachute is stuck, you'll need to pull the reserve chute."

"I already did!"

"Oh fuck!" Valorie shouted as he heard Liams grim news.

"Don't panic!" Gibbs said as he began to try a more technical approach as they reached four thousand feet.

"Take your time Gibbs, we've got the rest of our lives!"

Liam figured that sarcasim might mask his own fear but it didn't help at all. He waited as they hit three thousand...two, the ground was visible in detail as they fell to the surface.

"One th-" Gibbs was interuppted as the chute ejected and pulled them back.

Liam was heaving his breaths, he felt sweat trickle down into he eye causing it to sting a little as they driffeted down to the surface. He didn't hear anything from DeWitt so he just assumed she was in shock, understandable.

"Gibbs, what happened?"

"The chute was set to 1000 feet, weird I know. You somehow locked it by trying to open it early more than once, good job by the way if it's broken just hit it, so I unlocked it."

"How are the others?" He was sarting to breath regular again.

"Fine, you landed about mile out from the rest, they're regrouping now."

"Good, set a way point up in between us, and Gibbs?"

"Yes comander?"

"Shut up."

Liam manuvered around a tree and set foot on the surface, almost tumbling over Valorie which is when he realized she wasn't responding.

"Shit...Anyone? DeWitt passed out, she's got a broken nose and needs medical attention. Anybody ther-"

Allyson answered before he could finish.

"We've got a lock on your position, stay put Darcey."

He unhooked Valorie and set her under the tree, the planet wasn't much different than Earth. Although he was now in a rocky mountian type of terrain, it was the best way to describe it. The area was a lot like the rockys back home Liam stood up and tried to look around but he was surounded by trees that were about the same size of Earths. In fact they were evergreen trees just like Earths, strange Liam thought as he looked at the bottom of his HUD right next to Oxygen stauts it read: POSITIVE. Slowly Liam clipped off his helmet and breathed in the brisk mountain air, he knelt down to Valorie and plucked her helmet off as well. He knew how to fix a broken nose so he placed his forefinger and thumb on the bridge off her nose and...

"Aaaah!" Valorie shot up.

"Fuck, shit! Ouch!" She cursed as she looked up at a smiling Liam.

"Am I dead?" She asked.

Liam cocked his head. "Thank you comander Darcey for fixing my broken nose, thank you comander-"

"Yeah, yeah I get it you're an asshole." She sat up but Liam put his hand on her sholder.

"Don't get up, the others are coming with Dr. Martinez, let him have a look at you."

She rested her head against the trunk of the tree letting out a sigh. "Thank you."

a grin crossed Liams face as he sat down next to her.

"No thanks nessesary I was just busting your balls."

"I don't have those." She joked.

"Good to know." He turned his head to look at her...yep, he thought, still into her.

He had rolled a bandage across her nose and she had dry blood that reached her mouth but Liam still thought she was actractive. He couldn't, and he knew that it would be wrong if he made advances on a crewmen that may or may not even like him as a friend. He just pushed those thoughts back and continued to wait for help.

Gibbs' voice perked up in his ear. "Incoming, two o'clock."

Liam reached for his pistol and pointed at two o'clock, he heard a twig snap on the left and looked to DeWitt. She didn't have a weapon, she had a holster under her left arm...but no weapon.

He saw a leg step out of the shadows.

"Allyson?" He called out.

"Almost there, hang tight." He heard her over his earpeice.

He swallowed hard as the figure stepped out of the shadows and revieled him-itslef. Liam could see a furry hand, a flat face with the bottom end sticking out a little more than its eyes and forehead, with ears that pointed up on the side of its head like a human not ontop like a animal. It had round eyes like his, Liam looked down at it's legs again and noticed they were backwards like a Quarian or turian. The alien moved his/her hand up slowly and motioned for others to come out of the shadows.

They all had guns and were wearing armor that covered most of their bodies, the one infront of him had a long braids that sat behind it's ears and a small red cape cascading over its right sholder.

It almost reminded him of a goat, but it wasn't, not even close, he would have said cat too but...he just didn't see it.

But there they were all standing with their weapons drawn and trained on him, Liam stood infront of Valorie and had his omni-tool at the ready with a blade already unsheathed on his left hand using it to cover Valorie from the left. He didn't look nervous he wasn't shaking his gun was steady and he locked eyes with the thing infront of him, a few of the others had helmets but he kept his eye on the one infront of him. Liam smirked as he looked at them knowing they didn't speak any form of human he just looked at the one infront of him.

"So...this is akward."


End file.
